Jailbreaking
by SoloRogueStudios
Summary: Roman Torchwick is the best criminal in the kingdom of Vale, but even he slips up from time to time. When Roman is caught trying to steal one of the world's greatest treasures, it's up to his lovely assistant to set him free. Prison break story with a little bit of Gelato, part of the Misadventure-verse.
1. Chapter 1: First Time For Everything

**A/N: Well, here I am, I'm back. Sorry I took so long, I've had school things to deal with. This would've actually been out about a week ago, but then Nier: Automata came out; get it, it's a masterpiece. Hopefully I can set up a dedicated day of the week for me to get more writing done (I mostly work on this while I'm on break at work). I want to get this story out as quickly as I can without sacrificing quality.**

 **Anyway, without further ado, please enjoy the story and please leave a review.**

* * *

Chapter 1: First Time for Everything

It was early morning in the Kingdom of Vale, the sun just starting to rise over the capital city. The only people up at this hour were certain city officials, workaholics, and people who wanted to avoid everyone else. One such person was a criminal, strolling through the seedy part of town, letting the morning fog wash over him.

The man walked with purpose, his brown oxfords leaving a firm tap against the pavement with every step. His brown slacks and gray scarf complimented his red-lined, white jacket perfectly. A metal cane and a feathered bowler hat completed the look, giving the man a signature style that everyone in the criminal underworld could recognize.

The orange-haired rogue rounded a corner, walking down one of the more disreputable streets. His green eyes glanced over hood-rats, drug dealers, and prostitutes, shutting themselves into sordid buildings as the last remnants of the nightlife winded down for the day. The man let them be and continued on his way. He stopped at the bar on the corner, _The Hammered Ursa_ , and went inside.

The door hit a small bell, letting the owner know that someone had just entered. The man stood behind the bar, cleaning glasses with his back turned to the door. The only defining characteristic one could see of him was his greasy, black hair with rainbow-colored highlights.

"We're closed." said the barman, in a sleazy voice.

"A drink's not **quite** what I'm looking for." responded the man at the door.

"Torchwick." said the owner, turning around and pulling out a beer.

"Slick. How's my favorite info-broker on the South side doing?"

"Oh, y'know; same shit, different day." replied Slick, pushing the beer towards his orange-haired guest. "How 'bout you Roman? Figured you'd be by. You here about that job you asked me about?"

"Cutting right to the chase? Business must be worse than I thought."

"Well what d'you expect, the younger crowd tends to skip the bar and go straight for the whores outside."

"Ugh," Roman grimaced, "kids these days, always rushing into everything. Y'know, a few years ago guys would actually buy a girl a drink before taking them home, even if they were paid company."

"Easy there, Roman. You start talkin' like that, people'll think you're an old man."

"Well an old man taught me everything I know, including class and respect, two things this younger generation just doesn't have. Is it any wonder none of them can find a woman that **wants** to be on their arm?"

"Speaking of, that little lady friend o' yours still hangin' around?"

"But of course, I inspire loyalty in my coworkers, after all." said Roman, with a prideful grin.

"'Coworkers,' sure." said Slick, with a wry smile.

"Anyway, enough small talk, let's get back to business."

"Alright, alright. So, the museum?"

"Right, how's security look?"

"Pretty lax, just like I said it would."

"And no one else knows about this?"

"Far as I know. Watch your back either way, never know when someone else might be casing the place at the same time."

"Good to know." said Roman, downing the rest of the beer and slamming the bottle down on the counter. "Thanks for the help, and for the drink." he continued, leaving payment for both on the counter.

"Good luck, lemme know how it goes." said Slick, taking the bottle and money.

"I'm sure you'll hear about it one way or another." said Roman, as he turned and left.

After leaving the bar, Roman made his way through the back alleys, sidestepping the filth as he headed for his next destination. He came to a shabby-looking building with a back door that read 'condemned.' He knocked on the door in a specific pattern; three knocks, one knock, two knocks, three knocks. A metal slot on the door slid open, allowing a pair of reddish-brown eyes to look out at Roman.

"What's the password?" asked a gruff voice.

"Seriously, we're doing this again? You know who I am already." said Roman, irritably.

"What's the password?" asked the voice again.

Roman sighed in exasperation. "A Dog Day Afternoon."

The slot in the door slid shut, followed by the sound of several locks being undone, before the door finally opened. Roman walked in and looked up at the massive man that let him in. He stood at seven-and-a-half feet tall and was built like a pit bull; an apt description due to the fact that he was a dog-Faunus, as one could tell from the floppy ears on his head.

"Y'know, Dog, that password is starting to sound stupider every time I say it."

"That's **Big Dog** to you Torchwick."

"Your alias needs work, too." Roman muttered under his breath.

"And I don't really care if it sounds stupid, the point is that it works." continued the behemoth, as he made his way behind the counter in the back of the room.

Big Dog pushed a button hidden under the counter. The rotting walls of the room spun around, revealing row after row of tools and weapons. The wall behind the counter parted, opening up an additional storeroom. Even the top of the counter flipped over to reveal an array of illicit goods.

"So, whaddya want, Roman?"

Roman looked up from eyeballing the merchandise. "Do you still have it?" he asked, warily.

Big Dog grunted, he walked to the back room and came back with a metal briefcase. "One state-of-the-art Atlas-Tech Circular Plasma Cutter." he said, putting the case on the counter.

Roman reached for the case, eagerly, only to have it pulled backwards by the very man offering to him.

"Y'know, you're lucky you give me good business, Torchwick. This is my last one, and I held it for you. Think of it as a courtesy for your customer loyalty." said Big Dog, slowly sliding the case forward again.

"Why thank you, you're so thoughtful." responded Torchwick, reaching for the case again.

Big Dog's massive hand slammed down on the case once more. "No really, do you have any idea how difficult it was to get my hands on one of these things? I want you to understand **just** how much trouble I went through for this."

Roman narrowed his eyes at the larger man. "What do you want?"

"Extra, as in double. Price is five-thousand now."

"What!? Are you kidding me!?" asked Roman, incredulously.

"I don't **do** reservations, but I still held this for you."

Roman grimaced, before reluctantly pulling out his wallet. "Ugh, you're lucky I came prepared for this, you price-gouging mutt."

"I'm sorry, **you** are gonna talk to **me** about price-gouging?" said the Faunus, as he began counting the money. "How many people did you rip off in that scam you pulled last Christmas?"

"That was a legitimate business venture."

"You were charging six Lien for water bottles."

"Everything's more expensive in the city, that goes double for the best holiday festival the city has ever seen."

"Hmph, whatever helps you sleep at night." said Big Dog, sliding the case back towards Roman.

Finally able to touch the case without interruption, Roman opened it and inspected its contents. Finding everything to be satisfactory with the device, he nodded to the Faunus and closed the case.

"Now, about the Dust you'll need to use it…" said Big Dog.

"Ha ha, luckily that is one thing I **don't** need you for; I made the mixture myself." responded Roman, with a sly grin.

The Faunus grunted in response.

"Aw, I know, big guy. Who knows, one day I might not need you at all." said Roman, tauntingly.

"Yeah right, just try and find another black market dealer in this city."

"Oh, there are others; you just have better stock."

"You're damn right I do. Now, you done here?"

"Actually, I just ran out of security sensor spray and I don't have time to make more."

"Lucky for you, I make it better anyway." said Big Dog, pulling a spray can out from under the counter.

Roman paid for the spray and made way for the exit.

"Don't expect favors like that cutter to be a regular thing!" shouted Big Dog, as Roman opened the door.

The orange-haired thief waved him off, apathetically, as he started walking towards his last stop of the morning.

His final errand brought him to a cash house on the edge of the slum district. He knocked on the door, prompting to be opened slightly while still chained to the wall. A bald man in a suit looked him over, not quite concealing a handgun behind the door.

"I'm here to see Ash," said Roman, "she should be expecting me."

The man brought a finger to his ear, listening through the communicator that was just barely visible. He unchained the door and tilted his head towards the back of the building.

Roman walked down the hall, looking through the one-way window at the twenty-or-so people counting thousands of Lien. He was ushered into a back room that had two more suit-wearing guards standing outside. His escort followed him in and closed the door behind him.

Roman walked up to one of the chairs in front of the desk, as he watched a dark-skinned blonde woman pace around the room filing papers away. She would occasionally tug the business-skirt she wore with her suit back into place, as she frantically moved about. Roman couldn't help but notice her shirt had three buttons undone, giving him a generous view of her bust. She seemed to have caught on to the rogue's staring, as her attention quickly snapped to him.

"Roman, you're late!" she said, adjusting her glasses so that he could better see the anger in her amber eyes.

"Ash, baby-"

"Don't 'baby' me! You were supposed to be here seven minutes and twenty-two seconds ago!" she said, looking down at her gold watch.

"Right, sorry, my last two stops held me up."

"Irrelevant," she responded, sitting at her desk, "let's get down to business."

Roman nodded and took his own seat across from her. Ash pulled a folder out of one of the drawers and began flipping through it.

"What exactly do you need from me, Roman?"

"Well, I've got a job coming up soon. Simply put, something very valuable is going to come into my possession, before getting sold off to the highest bidder."

"And you need someone to launder the money."

"Precisely."

"Just tell me where you want it and I'll make the necessary arrangements."

"I was thinking…half to the Mistral account, and…a quarter to my holdings in Vacuo."

"And the rest?"

"The rest stays here with me, of course." said Roman, with a grin.

"Don't forget the cut I'm taking for my services." said Ash, sternly.

"Of course, of course, I could never leave you out. Who knows, I might even be willing to spend a little more of it on you; I know this great club that-"

"Tempting, Roman, but I know better than to go clubbing with someone like you, especially given the company you already keep."

"Heh heh, right." said Roman, tugging at his scarf.

"Well, with that, I believe we're done here."

"Always a pleasure doing business with you, Ash." said Roman, getting up and making his way for the door.

Ash merely mumbled a response, as she started working around the room again.

Roman exited the building and started the trek back to the more developed part of the city. With his morning errands completed, he could finally head back to his safehouse to relax for a while.

* * *

Roman arrived at the safehouse without any trouble. He unlocked the door and walked in, making sure to lock it back up behind him. He stripped off his coat and scarf, intent on staying in for most of the day.

"Neo, I'm home!" he called out, as he walked down the hall.

No response. There were no signs of forced entry or struggle around him, which could only mean she must not have heard him.

"Neo!" he called again, slightly quickening his pace. "I swear, if you're still sleeping I'm gonna-"

Roman's train of thought was cut off as he entered the main room of the small apartment. Lying on the floor, coffee mug in hand, was the young woman he was looking for; but it was the position she was in, and what she was wearing, that caused his mind to go blank. The pink-and-brown-haired girl was dressed in nothing but a skin-tight pink sports bra and matching pair of thigh-length training shorts. She was propped up on her elbows and lifting her body up in a gymnastic pose; specifically, she was arching her back, and one of her legs, over her head to push a button on the television with her toe.

" _How on Remnant is she that flexible?_ " Roman thought, as more of his body than he would've liked started to go stiff at the sight. He cleared his throat to get her attention.

Having heard his earlier calling, Neo responded by waving a hand at him dismissively.

"Um…Neo, why don't you finish up your…stretching, I've got a job for you."

Neo turned her head this time, looking up at Roman with her heterochromatic pink and brown eyes. She did a handstand and arched her back further, standing on all fours with her stomach facing up. She made sure her flattened abdominal area gave Roman the barest glimpse of her hip-bones through her training shorts, before pushing off the floor and standing up straight.

The short young woman walked up to her boss, still wearing barely anything, and looked up at him with rapt attention. Roman forced himself to maintain eye-contact as he addressed his partner-in-crime.

"Right, Neo, the museum heist is finally happening tonight. I need you to do one final sweep of the building to make sure there are no surprises."

Neo simply smiled and nodded in response.

"Good, now go." said Roman, pointing towards her room. "And for god's sake, put some clothes on!"

Neo quietly giggled to herself as her flustered boss turned away. She did as she was asked and made her way to her room. She opened up the wardrobe and got out her favorite ensemble; after all, if she was going out on the town, she was going to do it in style, even if no one would see her that way.

She put on a brown pair of jeans and matching corset, followed by a white tailcoat lined with pink on the inside. She rounded the set out with a pair of black gloves and a pair of high-heeled, white knee-boots. She added a couple of personal touches, a loose belt and a scattered array of necklaces, and then walked out into the main room.

Roman looked up from the chair he was sitting in as she entered. "You going out looking like that?" he asked.

Neo rolled her eyes, turning them a deep blue color in the process. She twirled around, as what appeared to be reflective shards of glass materialized around her body. Neo now stood as a blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl wearing a red plaid, pleated skirt and matching beret; she wore black knee-boots, a black tank-top, and a denim jacket. Her disguise complete, she presented herself to her boss.

"That's more like it," responded Roman, "try not to cause any trouble while you're there."

Neo pouted in irritation, upset that Roman would even imply that she couldn't reign in her more mischievous side. She turned on a heel and left with a huff.

* * *

The now blonde Neo made her way through the streets. The sidewalks were packed with people, completely clueless to the fact that a dangerous criminal was walking in their midst; to them, she just looked like a typical college girl. It was by far the biggest benefit of her Semblance, she could go all over the city and no one would ever know her real face.

She walked by a few interesting sights on her way: an ice cream parlor she considered visiting, a clothing store she considered stealing from, and a White Fang flyer she considered to be a waste of space. Neo didn't understand the point of the White Fang, fighting for Faunus equality. From what she could tell, the Faunus already had that, particularly in a kingdom as laid back and tolerant as Vale. Sure there were a few assholes around, but that would probably never change. Her boss was more than willing to degrade a Faunus if they happened to be an incompetent henchman, but Roman was like that to everyone, not just Faunus; that's why he had her around, because he knew that quality work was assured. She was lucky to have Roman, no activist-turned-terrorist group was going to try and save her from society's cruelty. She had only herself to rely on before Roman came along.

In her musing, Neo almost didn't notice she had already arrived at the Vale Museum of Art and History. She walked in the front door and showed her scroll to the receptionist. The brunette woman saw an ID in the scroll for an art student at Vale University, another product of Neo's Semblance. The receptionist let her in for free.

" _Like taking candy from a baby._ " Neo thought.

She made her way through the museum, looking interested in the exhibits so she didn't look suspicious to the security guards. The Historical Wing contained ancient artifacts from lost civilizations, as well as speculation about what human culture must have been like back then; some of the relics looked quite valuable, definitely something to look into in the future. The Natural History Wing contained a lot of information about animals and other living things, even some Creatures of Grimm were part of the exhibit; nothing worth stealing, although the handcrafted models of the Grimm could fetch a pretty penny from certain collectors. The Modern Art Wing contained a wide variety of different pieces, some more well-thought-out than others; no one would give them anything for this, it was amazing what some people considered art these days. The Classical Art Wing featured paintings and sculptures from the greatest artists in Remnant's history, every display was truly a masterpiece; these works were priceless, people would kill to have them in their own private collections.

Neo was not just admiring the pieces on display, she was also casing the place for later that night. She had the layout of the museum more-or-less memorized, and made particular note of the locations of security cameras. She eventually made her way to the Special Exhibition Hall, a section containing limited-time exhibits that were moved to different museums around Remnant; the items were usually on loan from wealthy collectors, including the object she would be holding in her hands later that night.

There, in the center of the room, sat a gleaming emerald. Other minerals in the green gemstone caused it to have many different other colors inside of it. It was the largest precious stone of its kind, the Gaia Emerald, on loan from the Gaia Mining Family of Atlas.

" _Jackpot._ " thought Neo.

"Mesmerizing, isn't it?" said a voice from behind her.

Neo turned around to find an older man with glasses, dressed in a brown suit.

"It took us years to convince the Gaia family to allow us to host it here." he continued. "Oh, forgive me, I haven't even introduced myself; my name is Terra Antiqua, I'm the curator of this gallery. You're a university student, I take it?"

Neo nodded at the man.

"Hm, good to see there are still young people who come to museums. Well, enjoy the rest of the exhibits." he said, before walking off.

Neo smiled and waved at the man as he left. While she couldn't speak for the other exhibits, she would certainly enjoy the one right in front of her once she held it in her hands; and considering it was worth more than everything else in the building, including the building itself, that was all she could ask for.

Her work inside now finished, Neo left the building and ducked into a nearby alleyway. With a shimmer of glass shards, her college girl façade was exchanged for a janitorial uniform; her hair had changed, now being jet black and tied up in a ponytail. With practiced ease, she hopped up the walls in acrobatic fashion and landed on the roof.

Neo surveyed the museum from up high, jumping across the rooftops to view the building from multiple angles. She took note of every potential entrance and exit, just in case they needed a more conventional exit route. She was observing the last corner of the museum when the rooftop door opened behind her. A young man wearing business clothes walked out, holding a cigarette in his hand. The man looked up, surprised to see someone else on the roof.

"Uh, who're you?" he asked.

"Window washer." replied Neo in a quiet voice, pointing to her janitor uniform.

The office worker shrugged and lit his cigarette.

Neo frowned, knowing she would be stuck on the roof until he finished his smoke break.

The man looked over, halfway through his cigarette. "Y'know, you're…unusually cute for a window washer."

Neo rolled her eyes. "I'm also spoken for." she said, curtly.

The man grit his teeth slightly, lamenting both Neo's response and his own terrible attempt at breaking the ice. He threw what was left of his cigarette onto the gravel, before grinding it out and heading back inside.

Satisfied with this turn of events, Neo smirked before looking back towards the alleyway she was in before. In a flash of white light, she vanished from the rooftop and reappeared in the alley. She looked around, making sure no one had seen her use her Semblance's secondary ability. Satisfied that the coast was clear, she used its first ability one more time to appear as a green-eyed red-head, and headed back home.

She stopped by the ice-cream parlor on the way back, enjoying a cone of the Neapolitan flavor she got her name from. She paid for it like a regular customer, she had to keep her vice in business after all. She figured Roman would probably treat her once their job was finished later that night, but saw nothing wrong with indulging herself a little. She walked back to the safehouse, polishing off her treat on the way.

* * *

Roman and Neo snuck through the back alleys in the dead of night, making their way to the museum, its doors having long been closed at this hour. Seeing that the coast was clear, they rushed across the street to the back wall of the building.

"You're sure you've got the blindspot right?" asked Roman.

Neo simply smiled and nodded.

"Okay, take us in."

In a flash of white light, the criminal duo vanished from the streets and reappeared on the other side of the wall.

Roman turned to see a startled security guard, dumbstruck by the sudden appearance of two complete strangers. The guard reached for his radio, but a strike to the head from Roman's cane made his mind go blank. Roman hooked the unconscious man's collar with the cane's curved handle, before lowering him to the floor quietly.

"Maybe we should've taken our chances with the door alarm after all." said Roman, sarcastically. "You know the plan; you disable the security system, I'll take care of our hosts."

Neo nodded, as glass-like shards enveloped her, causing her to vanish from sight. Roman could still see her transparent form by a slight shimmer in the air if he looked closely, but the cameras would never be able to spot it in the dark.

"And don't kill anyone." said Roman, before he forgot.

Neo sighed and proceeded to the security room. The door was ajar, and the guard inside was preoccupied with the monitors. Neo shed her concealment and tapped the man on the shoulder.

He turned around. "Huh…what the-" was all he managed to say before Neo's boot connected with his skull.

With the guard out of the way, Neo lazily took his seat and looked over the security console. The whole system was controlled through keycards. Neo looked over at the dazed guard and spotted his card hanging on his belt. She hooked the card with the curved handle of her pink parasol, and pulled it to her. Slotting the card into the console, Neo looked over her options. She immediately spotted the camera and alarm controls and disabled them.

Meanwhile, Roman was waiting patiently in the hallway, still in the cameras' blind spot, when he felt his scroll go off. He checked a message from Neo that read 'all clear,' then headed into the rest of the building with a smirk.

Neo watched the console, noting that it displayed the badge information of every guard on duty. Not counting the two they already took out, there were only three left.

Roman moved silently through the halls; hearing footsteps around the corner, the thief stopped and waited. As the lone guard came around the corner, he was knocked out by a briefcase swing to the temple. The man collapsed to the floor, drawing the attention of another guard nearby. Roman hid behind a pedestal displaying an art piece, he put the briefcase down, and then choked the guard from behind with his cane.

With no other guards in sight, Roman retrieved the case and quickly made his way around the perimeter of the museum, checking to make sure he got everyone. He was stopped when he rounded the corner and saw a guard looking straight at him from the other end of the hallway. Roman raised his cane, uncapping the end and preparing to fire an explosive round. Luckily, he didn't need to, as something caught the guard from behind. Roman walked up to the struggling guard to find him with his neck in a leg lock, courtesy of Neo.

"Well, it's about time you showed up." said Roman, sarcastically.

With a smirk, Neo finished strangling the guard.

"Now, on to the main event." said Roman, satisfied with his partner's work.

As they approached the Special Exhibition Hall, Roman held out his hand, signaling for them to stop. He took out the spray can he bought from Big Dog earlier that day, and sprayed the smoky aerosol into the room. Infrared tripwires, normally invisible to the naked eye, faintly revealed themselves to the thieves.

"They're on a separate grid," said Roman, "rich folks that donate things to this place were savvy enough to want some extra security."

Neo simply shrugged, walking up to the lasers with her ever-present smirk. She bent over backwards and moved forward, slipping under the first beam with the skill of an expert limbo player. She righted her posture, then leaped between the next few beams, landing in a handstand. Finally, she lowered herself to the floor and slid under the next tripwire, before jumping between the last few in a sideways triple-axle. She stuck the landing like a gymnast before turning to Roman and giving a grandiose bow.

"Yes, yes, very impressive." said Roman, clapping halfheartedly. " **I** prefer a more conventional solution." he said, loading a shell into his cane.

Roman fired the shell along the floor into the middle of the laser array. The space between him and his partner began to fill with thick black smoke. When the volume of the smokescreen looked sufficient, Roman walked forward. The smoke blocked the beams, allowing the thief to casually stroll over to his prize. He gave a bow to his partner, who responded with a derisive pout.

" _You're no fun._ " she thought, giving Roman a look that said as much.

"Well, we **are** here on business, after all." he responded, sarcastically. "Cut the alarm on the case."

Neo nodded and began inspecting the pedestal for a panel that she could remove. The disadvantage to demanding one's own security measures was that they were often self-contained enough to be easy to find. It took Neo less than thirty seconds to find an opening, before she wedged the panel off with a pair of screwdrivers. She inspected the alarm system inside, quickly saw what each wire was connected to, and cut the power cable with a pair of scissors. She turned to Roman and gave him a thumbs-up.

Roman opened his briefcase and took out the plasma cutter. "All right, let's see if this thing was worth the price." he said, as he fired up the machine.

A blue flame sparked to life, as a canister of Burn and Shock Dust slowly fed its contents into the device.

"Neo, if you would."

The short woman nodded and attached a handle to the glass display case with a suction cup. Once the handle was locked in place, Roman mounted the plasma cutter over it. He began cutting into the case using the machine's circular guide. The reinforced glass was no match for the intense, focused heat of the plasma. After a minute, Roman had cut a perfect circle in the glass. He pulled it free and put it aside, eager to claim his score.

It was at that time that Neo's eye was caught by something odd, a faint glow was present despite the plasma cutter being powered down. She looked over and noticed it was coming from inside the pedestal. As Roman reached through the glass to take the emerald, Neo rummaged through the wiring to inspect the mysterious light. Upon locating the source, she gasped in horror; there was a Dust crystal and a small computer board spliced into the wiring, a secondary power supply. Neo looked up at Roman. Too late.

As soon as Roman lifted the emerald off its stand, a cacophony of noise rang out through the room. Red lights flashed and security gates closed, as the alarm continued to blare.

"Shit! Neo!" yelled Roman, pocketing the gem.

The two thieves ran for the door, leaving the plasma cutter behind. In a flash of light, they warped right past the steel gate sealing the room.

"To the back!" Roman shouted over the alarm, noticing the flashing red and blue outside the front door.

They ran through the museum, flashing past any security gate that got in their way until they reached the hallway they entered from. With one last flash, they appeared on the other side of the wall, outside the museum.

Red and blue flashed from all directions, as a veritable fleet of police and SWAT vehicles surrounded the front of the building. Roman could hear booted footsteps around the corner, prompting him to make a break for the alley. He felt a weight drop out of his pocket, followed by a clink on the ground. Neo looked back to see the Gaia Emerald lying on the sidewalk.

"Forget it!" said Roman, pulling her along.

The footsteps grew louder and more frantic just as Roman and Neo slipped into the side streets.

"There he is!" shouted a SWAT officer. "Pursue him into the alleys, cover all exits!"

Roman and Neo ran through the cramped streets, frantically looking for an exit that didn't feature flashing lights in the distance.

"Roman Torchwick!" called a voice over a megaphone. "We have the entire district surrounded, there is no escape! Surrender now or we will use lethal force!"

" _Shit_ ," thought Roman, " _this was a setup. Somehow, they knew I was coming_."

Roman felt a tug on his sleeve; he turned and saw his partner's pleading eyes.

"I know, I know. Let me think." he said, quietly.

Roman tried to come up with a solution, a way out, but kept drawing blanks. The police had a perimeter around at least the entire city block, too far for Neo to warp past. SWAT teams with heavy armor were actively hunting them through the alleys; even with their skills, there was no guarantee the thieves would be able to fight their way out, especially with the firing squad they'd run into if they did. The more he thought about it, the more capture seemed inevitable; it was clear the police did not intend to leave here without him in custody.

" _Might as well embrace it_." Roman thought, with a sigh. "Neo, I'm gonna have to take one for the team."

Neo looked up at him with a panicked expression.

"Oh, don't give me that look. We clearly have no clean way out of this." said Roman, in a hushed voice. "You remember what to do, right?"

Neo looked to the side, hesitantly, but nodded.

"Good, now go."

"Hey, I think I hear voices. This way!" they heard an officer say, nearby.

Roman and Neo took off in the opposite direction, weaving their way through the alleys until they reached a dead end.

"Do it." said Roman, handing her his scroll.

Neo nodded, then flattened herself against the brick wall. Reflective shards formed around her until a perfect replica of her surroundings stood in her place.

Seconds later, a tactical team rounded the corner to find Roman standing alone, back turned with his cane raised above his head.

"Alright," he said, turning to face them, "you got me."

The team moved in to surround him. They put him on the ground and bound his wrists with handcuffs; one of the officers relieved him of his cane.

"Roman Torchwick, you are under arrest." said the officer restraining him.

"First time for everything." replied the thief, with a grin.

The SWAT team dragged him away to an armored van that was waiting for them near the inner blockade of police cars. They shoved him into the bench in the back.

"Hey, watch the hat!" he said, before they slammed the doors shut.

The tactical teams began packing up, as an investigative team moved in to inspect the aftermath of Roman's activity. Medical personnel were rushed in to tend to the injured security guards, while officers swept the perimeter.

"Captain!" called a CSI. "We found this behind the museum," he said, holding up a bag containing the Gaia Emerald, "must've been what he was here to steal."

"Pack it up as evidence, museum boys can claim it when we're done with it."

"Yes, sir."

The young man dropped the jewel off in a forensic truck, and went back to helping his coworkers. Unbeknownst to him, an officer pocketed the valuable item as soon as his back was turned. The thieving officer left the perimeter with a smirk, satisfied that he left the others none the wiser.

Once the police presence had died down, the brick wall in the alley fell to pieces, revealing a still-concealed Neo.

"Roman." she said, forlornly.

She walked out of the alley, her destination already in mind. Roman wouldn't stay incarcerated for long if she had anything to say about it.

* * *

 **Alright, hope you all enjoyed this first chapter. There's more to come; the whole story is already outlined and I've already started writing the next chapter. Hope to get that to you as quick as I can.**

 **In the meantime, I recently tore apart my old Twitter account, since I wasn't really using it for anything, and thought I could restructure it into something productive like community outreach; you can follow me there SoloRStudios. I'm not really active on there at the moment, but once I start actually getting some followers I'll start posting updates and other stuff. It's also got a link to my DeviantArt account if you wanna check out some of the other stuff I've been working.**

 **Also, as a side note, the living room scene was directly inspired by this fan art (just replace the () with periods):** **silenticha()tumblr()com/post/114662886294/headcanon-that-neo-combines-practicing-gymnastic**

 **Til next time, have a nice day.**


	2. Chapter 2: Hard Time

**Okay, here we are, chapter 2. My oh my, how long has it been since I last released a chapter in a timely fashion.**

 **So, I dunno if anybody noticed, but the character Ash from the last chapter is a pretty blatant reference to Ashe from Amagi Brilliant Park; just a treat for any fans of that series. There'll be a couple characters in this chapter that are based on/reference characters from other properties, so keep an eye out for those.**

 **Shameless Twitter plug: You can follow me on Twitter at SoloRStudios.**

 **Okay, I'm done. Without any further ado, here's the chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 2: Hard Time

It was one o'clock in the morning at the Vale Police Department, normally a time when no one truly wanted to be there. Night officers would rather be at home, asleep in bed like their families; but those very families are what motivated them to stick to their duty, to keep their city safe. Tonight, however, was not a typical night. Tonight, every officer in the precinct was excited to be there. Tonight, they finally brought in Vale's most notorious criminal.

Twenty officers were waiting in the receiving area as the truck pulled up to the curb. Four SWAT officers approached the back doors: two to open them, and two to keep their guns trained on the suspect. The doors were pulled open and Roman Torchwick walked out to greet his captors.

"Good evening, officers." he said, with a snide grin.

The SWAT officers that opened the doors grabbed him by the arms and started dragging him towards the door to the main part of the precinct. The other cops in the room all cheered as he walked by.

"Job well done!" said one.

"We finally got you, you son-of-a-bitch!" said another.

"Have fun in prison." said a third.

Roman simply chuckled as he was brought in to be processed. His cane was taken to the evidence locker, while he was taken to an officer standing at a computer.

"Roman Torchwick," said the officer, "boy am I glad that I'm the guy who gets to scan your prints into the system."

"Careful, you might not feel that way for long." said Roman, with a threatening grin.

The officer frowned at Roman, as two other cops grabbed the criminal and took him through the booking process. They scanned his fingerprints into the database and recorded the circumstances of his arrest, also making note of the numerous warrants that were out for him. They moved him against a wall and took his mug shots, his number was 274761453. Finally, they did a full body search and confiscated any personal belongings, including his cigars. When they were finished, they brought Roman to a holding cell, where he would stay for the rest of the night.

"Hey, Sorola," said the officer who locked him in, "send a message to the judge and the DA's office. I'm sure they'd like to get this guy's trial over with as soon as possible."

"Heh, knowing Judge White, Torchwick'll be in supermax by tomorrow." responded Sorola, typing up the email on his computer.

Roman simply kicked back on his bunk and went to sleep.

* * *

It was a clear morning as the sun rose over Vale. The streets were empty, as Neo made her way through the bad part of town. Any lingering street-urchins, who let their eyes wander over the beautiful young woman, were immediately warned off by a glare and a flash of a hidden blade in her parasol. She silently continued on her way, hiding her anger behind a cold expression. She eventually reached her destination, a bar called _The Hammered Ursa_ , where one of Roman's criminal contacts worked.

Neo practically threw open the door, causing the bell to rattle violently. Slick, the man she was looking for, turned around to face her from behind the bar.

"Hey, be careful with- Oh, why hello." he said, losing any signs of anger upon seeing the young woman.

Neo walked across the room, silently.

"Wait, aren't you that cute little minx that's always hangin' around with Torchwick? Can I get you a drink?" he asked, as she reached the bar.

Neo hooked the bartender's collar on the curved handle of her parasol and pulled. Slick fell forward, his face slamming into the countertop. With a twist of the handle, the parasol's hidden blade extended from the top end. Neo laid the smooth part of the weapon against the bartender's neck, a demand for compliance in exchange for his life.

"The hell're you doing you crazy bitch!?" he yelled in protest.

Neo put more pressure on the blade, prompting the distressed man to quiet himself. The tricolor-haired thief pulled out her scroll and showed him the latest news, a headline that read _Notorious Criminal Roman Torchwick: Captured at Last_.

"What, Roman got caught?" asked Slick.

Neo glared at him.

"You think I had something to do with that!?"

Neo kicked a barstool aside, causing it to slam into a table and knock it over.

"I get bad info sometimes! I try to verify what I can but some things just slip through the cracks, okay!"

Neo raised her blade, holding the tip just an inch away from his neck.

"No, please! Look, I'll tell you who gave me the info, where to find him, anything you wanna know! Just please don't kill me!" yelled Slick, hands clasped together as he begged for his life.

Neo pulled back, allowing him to get up. He let out the breath he had been holding and hunched over the bar, as he gasped for air.

"You…you are a **scary** lady, you know that." said Slick, when he finally caught his breath.

Neo glared at him.

"Alright, alright, I'm going!"

Slick pulled out a tablet scroll and began looking through an electronic ledger.

"Y'know, I'd never turn on Roman; it's 'cause I knew he'd kill me if I ever did." he said, as his eyes darted around the screen. "But, seeing what **you** can do, now I **really** don't wanna mess with him."

Neo watched him closely, tapping her foot impatiently.

"I mean, I had no idea you were so dangerous; guess it doesn't help that nobody really knows much about you." he continued, hoping the small talk would ease his nerves. "I always thought you were just a thief or some fangirl of Roman's. Then there're the people who think you're his woman, heh. **Are** you Roman's woman?"

Neo extended the blade of her parasol in response.

"Right, right, okay, none of my business. Ah, found your guy; here's all the info I have on him." said Slick, showing Neo his screen.

Neo looked over the information before nodding and walking out the door.

Slick let his gaze linger on the short woman as she left, before turning to the damage done to his bar. "Well, before anything, I should probably change pants."

* * *

Roman Torchwick was not having a good day. It was bad enough that he had to spend the night sleeping on a hard bunk in a holding cell, but now he was being driven to court only half a day later. The cop the night before hadn't been exaggerating when he said that the judge would get his trial over with quickly; apparently, all other cases for the day were promptly pushed back in favor of locking up Vale's Most Wanted. As Roman pondered the legality of the court doing such a thing, he felt the van come to a stop; they had arrived.

The courthouse was big, white, and had the typical stone columns one would expect; it was a design Roman didn't particularly care for. Officers opened the van and walked him into the building, stopping once they reached the table for the defendant.

The bailiff stepped forward. "Court is now in session, the Kingdom of Vale vs. Roman Torchwick; the honorable Judge White, presiding."

Everyone sat down after the brief spiel, and Roman looked up to get a look at who would be judging him. She was a blonde-haired woman, had to be around middle-aged but appeared quite a bit younger. Her uneven bangs framed a soft-featured face, which was set in a stern expression.

"Will the defendant please stand." she said.

Roman did as he was told, regretting having sat down in the first place.

"You have waived your right to an attorney and have opted to defend yourself, is that correct?"

"That's right." replied the thief. Lawyers were expensive, and Roman had something much more fun in mind.

"As you wish." continued the judge. "Roman Torchwick, you stand here today accused of armed robbery, homicide, grand theft auto, bond forgery, identity theft, breaking and entering, assault, inciting a riot, disturbing the peace, extortion, and a litany of other crimes we would be here for twenty minutes listing. How do you plead?"

"Guilty."

Everyone in the room flinched at the word. No one could believe the man had just said that. Even the Court Reporter seemed to drop his hands on his keyboard.

" **Excuse me** , let me see if I have this correct." said the judge. "You're pleading guilty?"

"What can I say Your Honor, I've been a bad man." replied Roman, with a snide grin.

"Your Honor, if I may." said the District Attorney, getting up from his chair.

"What is it, Mr. Dichrome?"

"The VPD and my office have spent a painstaking amount of time building a case against this man, it would be remiss of us not to present the evidence we have gathered."

"Well, unfortunately that decision is not up to you." said the judge, as she turned to Roman again. "Mr. Torchwick, are you pleading guilty voluntarily?"

"Yup, sure am." he replied, nonchalantly.

"Do you understand that by pleading guilty that you are admitting to facts that make up a criminal offense?"

"Yup."

"Do you understand the consequences of a guilty plea, including that you are giving up your right to have a trial by pleading guilty?"

"Uh huh."

"Do you understand that the judge does not have to follow the sentence that the DA is recommending?"

"Sure do."

"Well, since you have pled guilty and understand the consequences of doing so, this trial is concluded." said the judge, earning grimaces from the prosecution. "The Court shall now proceed to sentencing. Given the overwhelming list of crimes committed, Mr. Torchwick will be given the maximum sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole. Court is adjourned; officers, get this criminal out of my courthouse."

The officers that had brought Roman in grabbed him and walked him back to the van outside. They were stopped in the hallway by a man with black and white hair, District Attorney Dichrome.

"Congratulations, Torchwick, you managed to make years of police and legal work look pointless." he said, angrily.

"Always happy to make you guys feel stupid."

"Yeah, well, you're still going to prison for the rest of your life. Have fun, asshole."

The police continued to drag him away from the fuming DA.

"Honestly, I hand you guys a free victory and you're upset?" said Roman, with faux disappointment.

"A lot of people spent a lot of time building that case against you, and you're just treating it like one big joke." said one of the officers. "I'll feel better when you're locked up."

The officers handcuffed him and threw him in the back of the van. They banged on the side of the vehicle, signaling that it was locked up, and it drove off to its next destination.

* * *

It was late morning when Roman arrived at Vale City Penitentiary. The heavily-guarded facility was right on the outskirts of the city, right on the edge of the defensive walls. The prison's own walls served to keep the Grimm out and, more importantly, the prisoners in. The barbed-wire fences had an oppressive air to them, and the plain architecture felt uninviting. Inside, the grey stonework somehow managed to feel both grimy and sterile at the same time. The armed guards kept a close eye on him, as he was brought to the processing station.

The desk workers wordlessly entered his information into the prison's database. He was taken into another room where his clothes were taken, and he was given a white t-shirt, white underwear, and an orange prison jumpsuit; his police escorts handed his other personal belongings to the prison workers. Once he was dressed, the guards escorted him to the maximum security cell blocks.

"This is your cell." said one of them, as they locked him in. "Bunk, toilet, sink. Better get used to it quickly."

The guards left Roman to get acquainted with his new home. He decided to lie down on the bunk and stare up at the gray ceiling. Everything was gray: the walls were gray, the bars were gray, the toilet was gray, the sink was gray. Everything was gray.

Roman sighed, as he lied there doing nothing. " _I'm gonna get bored real fast in this place_."

His melancholy was short-lived, however, as guards began to file into the cell block. Roman sat up, curious about what was going on.

"Lunch time!" called one of the guards.

Roman couldn't help but feel a little relieved, he had barely eaten anything that morning and welcomed the idea of getting some food in him.

The prisoners were escorted to the cafeteria, where they lined up with trays to get their meals. Comparing the selection to cafeteria food from primary school would do a disservice to primary school lunch ladies. Everything here looked like it had come straight out of the freezer or a can. Even the gruel he had eaten as a child in the orphanage seemed more appetizing at this point.

" _Oh well, prisoners can't be choosers, I suppose. Not yet, anyway_."

He took a biscuit and what was claimed to be mashed potatoes, along with some corn and chicken. He grabbed a cup of juice to drink, since he didn't trust where the water came from in this place. Satisfied, as much as he could be, with his meal, Roman sat himself down at an empty table.

The food was surprisingly not as bad as he expected, although still a far cry from the cuisine he was used to. As he ate, Roman could feel the eyes of the other prisoners leering at him. They had noticed he was a new inmate and had marked him as fresh meat. For now, they were just eying him, but soon they'd try to see if he was someone they could take advantage of.

After lunch, the prisoners were led outside to the courtyard. There, they could get some fresh air and work out using the assorted exercise equipment. It was also where most of the hazing of new prisoners happened.

Roman looked around, but paid no mind to the prisoners whispering about him off to the side. He was more interested in the courtyard itself. There were guards by the door and on every corner, as well as watchtowers with lookouts along the stone outer wall. There were two high fences, spaced five feet apart and topped with barbed wire; the outer fence had signs saying it was electrified, just in case anyone got any ideas about cutting it.

Roman's observations were interrupted when he noticed inmates walking over to him. Within a few seconds, five prisoners had him surrounded. The guards noticeably tensed up, anticipating a fight.

"So, you're Roman Torchwick?" asked one of the inmates. "Word around here is that you're supposed to be pretty tough."

"Yeah, we heard you was the baddest crime boss in all a Vale." said another.

"We even heard you've given Hunters the slip." said the first prisoner. "Yet here you are, locked up by some plain ol' cops."

"Guess you ain't as bad as they say." said a third man.

Roman narrowed his eyes as he sized up his soon-to-be attackers. "Now that can't be right. If you really have heard of me, you wouldn't be dumb enough to pick this fight."

Some of the men noticeably scowled at his taunting words.

"I dunno, five-to-one, I kinda like those odds." said the first inmate. "See, just 'cause you're a big-shot out there doesn't mean we're gonna let you be on top in here."

"Oh, come now," said Roman, "we all know I'll get there anyway. All you're doing is guaranteeing yourselves a spot at the bottom when I do."

One of the prisoners that had been silent until then suddenly screamed. "You've done it now, Pretty Boy! Get ready for an early grave!"

Roman smirked.

* * *

Nightfall came quickly to the City of Vale that day. Time always had a tendency to fly by when excitement was in the air, and the people were quite excited to learn that a notorious criminal was now behind bars. Of course, for some, fortune was not so favorable; for some, seeing one devil get put away was immediately followed up by meeting another.

"Okay, we're here." said a cab driver, as he pulled up to the curb. "N-now, c-can I please go?"

The short, tricolor-haired woman in the back of the cab nodded. She lowered the sharp blade pointed at the back of his neck and sheathed it as she left the cab. The cabby drove away without payment, happy that he still had his life.

Neo glanced over the building before her. The nightclub wasn't too shabby considering the part of town it was in, but she wasn't here for the drink or the dancing. Neo had business with this club's owner, a man called 'Junior.'

* * *

 **So, that's all for now. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Feel free to leave a review so I can get some feedback, and if you enjoyed this be sure to check out my other stuff.**

 **Character references in the chapter, for those who are curious: Judge White (particularly her physical description) is based off of the YoRHa Commander from Nier: Automata (amazing game, highly recommend). DA Dichrome is a somewhat blatant reference to Two-Face of Batman fame.**

 **If anyone is wondering about the time-frame of this story, it takes place a few years before the main series time-frame. This was hinted at with the mug shot scene (it serves as an origin for the mug shot of Roman featured in the first episode of Volume 1). It'll be a bit more evident next chapter when we talk about the twins. Oh yeah, did I mention; the twins are gonna be in this. Now you have something more to look forward to next chapter.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading everybody. Have a good day, and I'll see you next time.**


	3. Chapter 3: Risky Business

**A/N: And here we are with another chapter. This one also ended up being a little short, the next one should be a bit longer.**

 **Shameless Twitter Plug: Follow me at SoloRStudios for updates, artwork, and more.**

 **With that out of the way, enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 3: Risky Business

Neo made her way through the nightclub, as the flashing lights and loud music assaulted her senses. She didn't mind the club scene, though it was far from her preferred venue. For what it was worth, the place had some degree of class; the guests were all well dressed, as was the staff, leading her to believe that Junior at least cared about his club's reputation.

Neo had never met Junior personally, but from what Roman had told her he was one of the most well-connected people in the criminal underworld. If you needed information, weapons, or hired muscle, Junior was the man to see. Unfortunately, this meant his services were expensive, leading Roman to only seek him out as a last resort or if the need was especially urgent. Even favors from Junior, of which Roman was owed many, were not things to be wasted lightly.

The short young woman weaved her way through the crowd of club-goers on the dance floor, making her way to the bar. She sat down and wordlessly placed a written order on the counter. A tall, some would say huge, man behind the counter took it and began fixing her the drink. The bearded man removed his red sunglasses and looked over at his silent customer. He straightened out his waistcoat and turned to face her.

"You seem a little young to be in this club," he said, placing the finished drink on the counter, "but looks can be deceiving."

Neo gave the man a devilish smirk, as she took a sip from the glass. She hummed in satisfaction, raising her glass towards the bartender in praise of the drink's quality.

The man nodded in thanks. "So, what exactly are you here for, Neopolitan?"

Neo raised an eyebrow, slightly surprised.

"Yeah, I know who you are. I also heard your boss got put in the slammer earlier today."

Neo frowned upon hearing that, but was glad that Junior had recognized her; it meant she could cut right to the chase.

"So, I'll ask again. Why…are you here?"

Neo smiled and slipped him a folded up piece of paper.

Junior's brow furrowed as he took the paper and read its contents. "What is this, a supply list?"

Neo closed her eyes and gave a nod.

"Sorry, not interested."

Neo's eyes snapped open, her smile vanished. She fixed the man with a glare.

"You heard me. I'm sick and tired of owing Torchwick favors." said Junior, crossing his arms. "I'm glad he's in prison, keeps him out of my hair for a while. You wanna bust him out, go ask someone else."

Neo crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.

"No means no; now, get outta here."

Neo didn't get up, instead picking up her glass and taking another sip from her drink.

"Maybe you didn't hear me…I said, leave." said Junior, now scowling at the petite criminal.

At this point, a group of men had surrounded the bar. They all wore black suits and trilbies, and red sunglasses. Each of them had either an axe, a curved short-sword, or a large pistol. A pair of twin girls wearing lacy dresses looked down on the situation from one of the balconies. Some of the club-goers began to take note of what was going on and started backing away uneasily.

Junior hunched himself over the bar, looking down at the much smaller woman. "Well?" he asked her, as she arrogantly took a third sip from her glass.

One of the mobsters stepped forward and placed a hand on Neo's shoulder. His mistake.

Neo smashed the rim of her glass against the countertop, letting the remaining contents spill out. She swung herself around and slashed at the man with the broken glass, before kicking him into one of his allies standing by.

The mobsters stared, dumbstruck, at their fallen comrades, before snapping back to the now-violent woman before them.

Neo grabbed the bar and locked her legs around her seat; she gyrated her hips, flinging the barstool into another one of the bouncers. She grabbed her parasol and kicked off of the bar, just as a trio of attackers charged her. The three men ran into the bar, one of them falling over it upon impact, as Neo descended onto another mobster with a drop-kick. A few people screamed, as all of the civilians bolted for the door.

Four more mobsters swung at the troublemaking thief with bladed weapons, only for her to effortlessly bob and weave between their attacks. Neo held her parasol over her head and swung forward, hitting one of the attackers with the handle before swinging back and doing the same to the one behind her. Seeing an opening, the mobsters closed in to try and deprive Neo of space to move around. She responded by opening her parasol and spinning around, using the expanded weapon to space out her opponents. With the pressure broken, Neo closed her parasol and moved from one target to the next, taking each one out with a quick combination of kicks and parasol jabs. She twirled through the crowd, opening and closing her parasol as needed to block bullets and push people back.

"Stop tearing up my club!" yelled Junior from behind the bar, before a hail of bullets caused him to immediately duck back down.

With most of the guards knocked out, Neo was almost caught off-guard when the automatic fire rained down around her. She crouched down with a spin and opened her parasol behind her, catching a brief glance of the DJ in a bear helmet wielding a Tommy-gun. Suddenly, Neo vanished in a flash of light, causing the DJ to stop firing and look around in confusion. Another flash appeared right in front of the masked man, disorienting him and causing him to drop his gun. Neo raised her arms and put her closed parasol across the back of the musician's neck, before pulling forward and using the leverage to flip him over the turntable in front of her.

The music having come to an abrupt halt, Neo was able to easily hear the sound of two enemies trying to drop down on her. She jumped off of the DJ stand and turned to see the twins that had been observing earlier. One had short black hair, wore a lacy red dress, and had a pair of long claws mounted on her wrists. The other had long hair, a similar white dress, and a pair of blades on the back of her high-heeled boots. The green-eyed teenagers jumped forward, pursuing Neo onto the dance floor.

Junior peeked back over the bar, his eyes widening as he saw the twins enter the fray. "No, wait!" he called, only to be ignored.

The twins moved as one, climbing over one another and using their respective weapons to compliment each others' attacks. Neo backpedaled and dodged their combined assault, opening her parasol to push the red one aside once she saw an opening. With her sister gone, the white-clad sibling was at a huge disadvantage against her more skilled opponent. Neo closed her parasol, used three precise jabs to throw the girl off-balance, and then finished with a spinning high-kick to the face. The red-clad twin jumped forward, claws outstretched, only to be stopped by an unfolding parasol. Neo promptly directed her into the floor, before flipping over the parasol and stomping on the helpless girl.

"STOP!"

All three fighters turned their attention to the bar, where Junior stood with his hands raised.

"That's enough!" he said, gesturing for Neo to come back over to the bar.

The tricolor-haired girl kicked the red twin aside with a smile, and gleefully skipped over to the bar.

"I'll help you, alright. Just, please, don't do any more damage."

The twins hobbled over to one another before turning to the club owner.

"And you two, go upstairs and get yourselves cleaned up."

Neo picked up a barstool and sat down. She raised an eyebrow and gestured towards the twins that were now heading up the stairs.

"What, them? My newest bouncers, spoiled daughters of a rich friend who wanted them to learn a little discipline. I started them off waiting tables and cleaning up; soon as I saw that they could fight, I started training them. There was no way they were gonna beat you, though."

Neo sat up straighter and smiled proudly.

"Alright, let's take a look at that supply list." said Junior, fumbling around behind the bar for the piece of paper.

Neo waited as the club owner looked over what she needed.

"Okay, I can have all this prepared in about a month. That should give you plenty of time to take care of whatever you need on your end."

Neo simply nodded and gave a thumbs-up. Just as she was about to leave, she raised her index finger and mouthed an 'oh.' She held her finger up to Junior as she fished her scroll out of her pocket. She pulled up the latest photo in her gallery and showed it to the man.

"What's this, you already got a body for me to clean up?" asked Junior, studying the bloody image onscreen.

Neo pouted angrily.

"You expect me to believe you **found** him like that?"

Neo nodded vigorously.

"I get it; you were looking for that guy and found him dead, and you wanna know how he got that way.

Neo smiled and nodded.

"Alright, I'll look into it."

* * *

Two weeks, two weeks was all it took for Roman Torchwick to get accustomed to prison life. After single-handedly beating groups of thugs in exercise-yard brawls for several days in a row, the top dog among the inmates began to take notice. One failed stabbing and a humiliating defeat later, and Roman had taken the man's place at the pinnacle of prison life. The guards had done nothing to stop his rise to power, either; after all, he was just one man defending himself against repeated assaults by gangs of assailants.

Of course, earning the respect and fear of the inmates wasn't the only thing making prison life more comfortable. The fact that some of the corrections officers were cops on his payroll before his arrest certainly helped. They had gotten him some magazines to read, a small TV to watch, some extra padding for his bunk, and even his cigars from his confiscated belongings; they couldn't get him his lighter, though, so he had to settle for getting a light whenever they walked by.

None of the other inmates questioned Roman's luxurious arrangements, of course, for fear of incurring his wrath. On top of that, if a prisoner was useful to him, Roman had no problem using his leverage to get them things or swing favors from the guards their way.

Most of Roman's time in his cell was spent watching TV, smoking, or getting an extra workout in. Whenever he got bored of those things, he would simply listen to the inmates around him talking, see what stories and rumors were floating around. Today, for example, there were whispers about some valuable gemstone being fenced on the Black Market in the next few months.

"…yeah, heard it was real pricey."

"And it was from Atlas?"

"Yeah, some museum piece or something."

" _Wait a minute?_ " thought Roman, as he furrowed his brow. "What did you just say?" he asked the inmate in the cell next to him.

"Um, s-sorry Mr. Torchwick; I didn't say nothin' about you, I swear." replied the man, in a hurried and rehearsed manner.

"What, no no-ugh, forget about that! What were you saying just now, about the thing from Atlas!?"

"Oh, right. There's some big jewel being fenced sometime soon, heard it was stolen from the museum in Vale."

"Well, that's funny, because **I** stole a jewel like that and I'm clearly **not** the one fencing it."

"That was the score you got busted for?" asked the other inmate. "Guess I shouldn't be all that surprised considering who's rumored to be selling it."

"Who?"

"Pyrite."

Roman grimaced.

Pyrite, a name reviled by the criminal underworld, especially among the 'old breed' who still believed in honor among thieves. Pyrite had made a business of upstaging other thieves, letting them do the work and then stealing their scores. Roman was far from the first criminal that had ended up in prison as a result of Pyrite's alleged involvement; alleged, of course, because no one could ever prove he did it, just notice their stolen item getting sold by someone else shortly afterward.

" _So, that son-of-a-bitch must've been the one who tipped off the cops about my heist._ " thought Roman. " _Well, he just fucked with the wrong thief. This means_ _ **war!**_ "

Roman's thoughts of vengeance were interrupted when he heard the cell block gate buzzing someone in. He hadn't asked one of the guards to bring him anything and it wasn't time for a meal, making him Roman curious just who it was walking towards his cell. Four guards stopped in front of him, flanking a rather portly man in a charcoal pinstripe suit.

"And you are?" asked Roman.

"We haven't yet been introduced, I'm Warden Glass." replied the slightly shorter man. "You've made quite the humble abode here these past few weeks, Mr. Torchwick." he said, waving his hand at the amenities in the cell.

"What can I say, the perks of good behavior."

The warden scoffed. "The only thing I appreciate less than unrepentant inmates is punks like you who think you can play the system. Guards."

The four officers unlocked the bars and dragged Roman out of the cell.

"A few months in solitary confinement should make an example out of you. Oh, and don't worry about the guards you bribed, they'll probably be locked up in here by the time I let you out." said Glass, with a smirk.

Roman scowled at the smug warden, as the guards dragged him off to the isolation ward.

* * *

"Alright, orders are all placed." said Junior, sliding a drink to his small guest. "Everything'll be ready in two weeks."

Neo smiled and casually sipped her drink.

"I also looked into that dead guy you wanted me to check out. Wasn't much to find; he was a low-level street tough, made some extra money on the side tipping off info-brokers, probably got used to feed false info and was killed to tie up loose ends."

Neo raised an eyebrow, expecting more.

"It was a clean kill, cops also scrubbed up the scene pretty quick; there's no evidence that could lead to a killer."

Neo frowned.

"Now, hold on, there's something else I heard that I think you'll find interesting."

Neo perked up and listened intently.

"That fancy rock you and Roman were trying to steal the other night, it just recently turned up on the Black Market."

Neo snarled angrily, knowing this could only mean that she and Roman had been set up. She turned her eyes to Junior, demanding a name.

"And the guy rumored to be selling it…is Pyrite."

Neo seethed even more. It was bad enough they were set up, but the fact it had been done by the infamous 'Thief-of-Thieves' just made it worse.

"Hey, I don't like him either, no one in the criminal underworld does. Only reason he hasn't been gutted like a trout yet is 'cause no one even knows what he looks like. But, tell you what; I'll help you find him."

Neo looked up at the club owner in shock.

"Yeah, he's cost **me** quite a bit of money, too; I'll gladly help you end him."

Neo smiled and clapped with joy.

"But, one condition."

Neo stopped clapping and inquisitively raised an eyebrow.

"After this, Torchwick and I are even. No more favors; he wants something from me, he's gonna have to pay for it from now on. Deal?" said Junior, extending his hand.

Neo looked at the hand tentatively. She really shouldn't have been making deals on Roman's behalf, but figured he'd relish the chance to kill the man who set them up. With a smirk on her face and eyes half-lidded, she took Junior's hand and shook on the deal.

* * *

 **And that's a wrap. Hope you all enjoyed that. I'm really excited about this next chapter so I'll start working on that right away. Leave me some feedback in a review, and I'll see you next time.**


	4. Chapter 4: Mind Games

**A/N: Hey everybody, it's been a while. Sorry this chapter took a bit longer than the last few, I've been taking it a little too easy these past few weeks (and Steam Summer sales certainly haven't helped). Anyway, here's my shameless Twitter plug: follow me 'at' SoloRStudios; and with that out of the way, let's just dive right in.**

* * *

Chapter 4: Mind Games

Warden Glass was finally at ease, finally able to do his work in relative peace and quiet. Locking Roman Torchwick in solitary confinement was the best decision he had made since the infamous crime lord had arrived. Even the regular prisoners had settled down, figuring that if a big fish like Roman could be punished, then so could they. Of course, this state of affairs would only last about a month or two before devolving back into the normal prison hierarchy, but the warden was content taking what peace he could get.

"Warden Glass." said a female voice, as a knock was heard on the office door.

"Come in."

The door opened and the warden's secretary entered the room, her arms full of papers. The blue-eyed young woman adjusted her glasses and the loose bun her brown hair was held in, as she made her way across the office to the cold, titanium desk. She casually dropped the pile of documents in front of her boss, before tucking a loose part of her white blouse into her black business skirt.

"These are all the latest forms you have to fill out, Sir." said the klutzy young woman. "They're all in triplicate, so this pile isn't quite as bad as it looks."

"Thank you, Crystal." said the warden, as he took the first three pages from the stack.

"Right, so first up we have acknowledgements for all the new inmates that just got incarcerated today." said Crystal, picking up some sheets that had gotten scattered on the floor. "You'll need the database for those."

The warden nodded and opened the database on his computer. He spent the next ten minutes looking up each prisoner and signing the acknowledgement forms.

"Okay, now what?" he asked.

"Next up are prisoner transfers in and out of the penitentiary."

The warden looked through each transfer form. A fugitive had been apprehended in Mistral and was being sent here to his home kingdom. Atlas was requesting a few White Fang members be sent up North to be interrogated by local law enforcement. Villages outside the main kingdom wanted to send over criminals that couldn't be reliably held in their smaller jails. Inmates that had finished their sentences or made parole needed to be cleared for release.

"Next." said the warden.

"Bills to pay."

Warden Glass grunted in disappointment. He looked through the expenditures and signed away what funds were needed to pay for them.

"And what's this last one?"

"An application for an internship." replied Crystal. "She's a promising criminal psychology student from Vytal University looking to get some work experience."

"Hmm, Amarella Golding." said Glass, as he looked through the application. "High marks, flexible schedule, wants to work with the Vale Police Department."

"Sounds promising to me."

"Perhaps, I just hope she doesn't end up scared off of the job like the last one." said Glass, signing the document.

* * *

A week passed by, bringing a phone call and an interview with one of the prison's counselors. After making a good impression and proving herself up to the task, Amarella Golding found herself standing outside of Vale City Penitentiary for her first day of work. The blonde college student tugged nervously at her blouse and patted the loose bun her hair was tied in atop her head. She adjusted the glasses framing her aquamarine eyes, and made her way to the entrance.

She was greeted by a pair of guards in the doorway, who directed her towards the desk where a brown-haired woman was waiting for her.

"Oh, hello, you must be the intern." greeted the blue-eyed woman. "I'm Crystal, the warden sent me down here to greet you."

"Amarella Golding, but you can just call me Ama." said the student, meekly, as she shook Crystal's hand.

"Ama, I like it; short, sweet, rolls off the tongue."

Ama laughed, slightly flustered by the secretary's enthusiasm.

"Anyway, let's get you set up." said Crystal, leading the younger girl through the halls. "We'll probably have you do clerical tasks until you get settled in, after that you'll mostly be interviewing prisoners. You'll want to do some research on their cases and prepare questions in advance; we've prepared a desk with a computer for you, right across from mine in fact, for you to work on that."

"T-thank you, I honestly wasn't expecting to get my own desk."

"Of course, we want to make sure our interns get the most out of their work here and are well taken care of. Oh, that reminds me; for safety reasons you will be escorted by prison guards at all times when you're in the main part of the facility, we have quite a lot of dangerous characters in here after all."

"I understand." said Ama, with a nod. "Also, is it true that you're holding…him?"

"Hm, who?" asked Crystal, coming to a halt.

"Roman Torchwick."

"Oh, yeah we are. He's in solitary confinement though, completely off limits; you'll need some more experience and a special appointment from the warden before we let you sit down with a criminal **that** dangerous."

"O-oh, I wasn't-"

"Of **course** you were. What aspiring criminal psychologist **wouldn't** want to take a crack at Vale's most notorious criminal?"

"W-well, maybe a little bit."

"Hm, listen sweetheart, lemme give you some advice; don't hide your ambition, it's what'll get you places."

"This coming from a secretary?" said Ama, covering her mouth when she realized she had said that out loud. "I-I'm sorry!"

Crystal stifled a giggle. "I'll let you in on a not-quite-secret; I'm the only reason the warden gets any work done, this place'd fall apart without me. Although, I **am** a bit of a klutz, so sometimes I wonder how true that is."

Ama laughed along with the slightly older young woman.

"C'mon, let's get you set up." said Crystal, continuing down the hall. "Oh, and keep that snarky side going strong, you'll need some grit to work this job."

* * *

Ama got settled into her new place of work quickly. The desk they provided her with wasn't anything fancy, but it would get the job done. One look at the reinforced steel box made her wonder how the staff managed to move it to where it now stood; apparently all the desks in the building were bulletproof, just in case. She dropped any materials she had brought into the drawers and went straight to work.

True to Crystal's word, the first few days were mostly spent helping the secretary with clerical tasks. When Ama wasn't doing that, she was diligently studying the records of the inmates that were deemed safe enough for her to interview. The prison staff wanted to 'start her off light' with some of the more reformed criminals first, apparently they were worried about liability issues after what happened with their last intern; disconcerting as that sounded, Ama refused to be discouraged.

On her fourth day on the job, Ama finally got her first interview set up; it was just a local small-time thief, but it was progress. Two guards brought her to a secluded room beyond the cell blocks; apparently it was used by the prison psychiatrist for his own meetings with the inmates. The room had a steel table and matching pair of chairs in the middle of it. The guards stood by the door, while Ama took a seat on the chair furthest from them. Another guard came through the door, bringing the interviewee in with him. The man was tall, with a slight build and some light stubble on his face; he had brown hair and matching eyes, and was adorned in the same orange jumpsuit as the other inmates. He sat down across from Ama, eying her nervously as she flipped through her notes.

"Your name is Corvo Corsair, correct?" asked the girl.

"That's right."

"And you hail from Mistral, yes?"

"Yeah."

"And it says here you were arrested after stealing a car from a dealership you worked at for two weeks."

"Not a car, a pickup truck, better for off-road."

"Ah, I see. And why exactly did you steal that truck?"

"I was gonna drive it across Sanus, make my way to Vacuo."

"Go to a place where you would be among other thieves?"

"That was the idea."

Ama made some notes on what she had heard so far. "Where are you from in Mistral?"

"Yamiyuri, it was a small village that was overrun by Grimm. After that, I drifted from place to place until I was taken in by a clan of bandits."

"And I suppose they're the ones who taught you to steal?"

"No, I was stealing to survive long before I met them, they're just the ones that made me good at it."

"So why come to Vale?"

"I didn't want that life, I wanted a fresh start. We were conducting a raid near the coast; first chance I got, I stowed away on a boat and came here."

"Hmm, and yet you continued to steal anyway."

"Finding steady pay was tough; I ended up robbing quite a few stores for whatever I couldn't afford. Guess I couldn't escape the life of a thief after all; after that, I figured I'd go to Vacuo where thieves like me are welcome."

"I see." said Ama, putting down her pen and removing her glasses. "Thank you for sharing all of that with me, it helps me a great deal."

"Mm, no problem." said Corvo, solemnly.

Ama signaled to the guards that she was done with her interview, prompting them to take the young thief back to his cell.

When the men returned, they brought a haggard-looking young woman, barely older than Ama herself, into the room. Her unkempt, dirty-blonde hair covered much of her face, and the dark rings around her hazel eyes indicated a lack of proper sleep. The girl slumped into the chair and looked up weakly at the psychology student; she grasped her arms to stave off the chill of the room.

Ama shook off her initial shock and cleared her throat, she put on her glasses and looked through her notes. "You are Angel Wan, yes?"

"That's me." replied the girl, nervously.

"And you were put in here for drug possession, correct?"

"Y-yeah."

"That's a bit of an unusual charge; police normally don't have time to deal with individual users, so I'm guessing you pled down from something more severe?"

"I w-wasn't dealing if that's what you're asking. M-my mom's the one who told the cops that when she called them."

"Your **mother** got you arrested?"

"Y-yeah. She told 'em I was dealing one night when I was really strung out; by the time I could think straight, I was already in the back of a squad car. Court couldn't f-find me guilty of intent to distribute, so they p-put me away f-for possession instead." Angel elaborated, as she looked down in shame.

"And how do you feel about your mother doing that to you? Do you feel any kind of resentment towards her?"

"God no, if anything I'm g-glad I'm in here. I was wrecking my life, h-hurting everyone I care about; prison's been like hardcore rehab for me, I feel like shit b-but at least I'm going clean."

"So you would say your time here has been beneficial to you?"

"Sure has; guards keep me drug-free, and even some of the other girls in here help me keep lookin' up. Once I'm out, I'm gonna set my life straight." said Angel, with a smile on her face.

"That's an admirable goal. It's been very insightful talking to you, thank you for your time."

"Hey, no problem, whatever helps you out, Doc."

"Wha- oh no, I'm not a doctor, not yet, I'm still just a student." said Ama, flustered at the thought of one day having a PhD.

The guards calmly escorted Angel back to her cell, allowing Ama to lean back and take a bit of a break. She hadn't expected her first two subjects to be such reluctant criminals; she had supposed some would be victims of circumstance, but was more interested in working over more…deliberate perpetrators.

The next week was spent with similar crooks and con artists. Some had sob stories, some owed money to the wrong people, and some were just greedy. After Crystal saw that Ama could handle herself, she allowed the eager student to start interviewing some of the more dangerous offenders in the facility.

"You know, I really don't get it." said one of the door guards, as they waited for the latest inmate to arrive.

"Hm? What?" asked Ama.

"I don't get it, your fascination with criminals, I mean. How does a nice, young girl like you get interested in what goes on in bad-guys' heads?"

"I want to understand their motives, what drives them, what makes them do what they do. I figure I can use that knowledge to help the police catch them and put them behind bars." replied the girl, resolutely. "As for **why** I want to do that, my father was killed in a home invasion when I was very young; no little girl should ever have to go through that, and if I can help stop it happening to someone else…"

"Oh jeez, sorry I asked." said the guard, solemnly.

"Its fine, I don't really mind talking about it anymore."

They were interrupted by a knock on the door, signaling that a prisoner was about to be brought in. The guards opened the door, allowing two more officers to enter the room and drop off Ama's latest subject.

The man sat down calmly, running his hands through his slicked-back red hair. His face was rather gaunt, though it was clearly more a result of his age than any physical ailments. He looked up at Ama with his amber eyes and waited patiently for her to begin.

"So, you're Red Jack?"

"That's what they used to call me."

"You were one of Vale's most infamous serial killers just a decade ago."

"That's right, then they caught me and I've been on death row ever since; but you know all of this already. Why don't you ask me the questions you **really** want to know the answer to?"

Ama paused slightly, a little put off by how straight-to-the-point the man was being. "Alright. Why did you kill those women?"

"They were the dregs of society, selling their bodies to the highest bidder; they disgusted me." he replied, matter-of-factly. "Honestly, I believe I was doing society a favor by cleaning them off the streets."

"Your…'cleaning'…was quite **messy** if the police reports are to be believed; or are you trying to tell me your hair is the reason they called you Red Jack?"

"Well, a death without bloodshed is hardly going to get any attention."

"You **wanted** the bodies to be found? You **wanted** people to find out there was a killer on the loose?"

"Of course, if no one discovers the pattern, no one gets the message."

"Message?"

"That such behavior will not be tolerated."

"I see. So, you must see yourself as some kind of big hero; is that it?"

"No, of course not; what I did was utterly reprehensible, I have no illusions of that." responded Jack, casually.

Ama practically flinched. "And you're just…okay with that?"

"What can I say, young lass; some people just have a few screws loose, I'm one of those people, I've just accepted what I am."

Ama stood up, horrified at what she had just heard. She knew there were people in the world who took lives for callous reasons, but actually meeting such a person and hearing them talk about their atrocities so casually still caught her off guard.

"Takes you aback, doesn't it? You cannot even **fathom** that a mindset like mine exists."

The girl took a breath and sat back down. "You're right, there's more wrong with the world than I thought if someone like you can exist in it. I think we're done here for today."

Jack smiled. "Well, it's been a pleasure speaking with you."

The outer guards came in and escorted the notorious murderer back to his cell. Ama sat back down in her chair, still a little shaken from the experience.

"You alright?" asked one of the guards, placing a comforting hand on the girl's shoulder in a practiced manner.

"I'll be fine." she responded, keeping herself as composed as she could.

"That's something you're gonna have to get used to. Plenty o' crazies like that in here, plenty o' crooks that do things for reasons that make no sense."

"Yeah, I'll bet."

For the next week, Ama interviewed the worst criminals that Vale had to offer; everyone from rapists to drug lords to terrorists. True to the guard's word, many of them had motivations that would never make sense to the rational mind. Ama was not discouraged, however; these…people would serve as the tests by which she would prove her resolve, her devotion to her goal. The young woman was determined to face the worst this building had to offer. It was for that very reason that she was glad to have been called to see the warden at the end of the week.

* * *

Ama stood nervously outside Warden Glass's office. Despite being an intern at the prison for a couple of weeks now, Ama had yet to actually meet the warden; the man was exceptionally busy and didn't have time to immediately meet every new person in his employ. The fact that he was willing to take some of that time out of his schedule to meet with her was a fairly good indicator that he saw some value in her. So, here she was, knocking on the door of the most important person in the facility.

"Come in." said a stern voice, prompting the girl to enter the heavy, metal door.

Ama entered the office confidently, but not without some slight apprehension. The middle-aged man at the desk looked up at her and adjusted his glasses.

"Ah, you must be Amarella Golding, good to finally meet you; I hope Crystal hasn't been too hard on you."

"Nice to meet you, too, Sir; a-and no, Crystal has been nothing but wonderful, I don't know what I'd do without her."

"Believe me, I know the feeling." said the warden, getting up from his seat. "Come, sit down." he continued, pulling back one of the chairs in front of the desk.

"Thank you, Sir." replied Ama, taking a seat.

"So tell me, how has your time here been so far? Do you find the work to be satisfactory? Demanding? No doubt you've faced some…challenges in the past week or so."

"The work experience has definitely been useful to me; as for the challenges, I expected as much when dealing with criminals."

"Mmm, I see. You know, I've seen people put on brave faces like yours before. Our last intern did the same thing, cracked under the pressure before quite furiously quitting the position. Don't be too proud to ask for help if you need it, we have excellent counselors here for both inmates **and** staff; you're here to **learn** , Ms. Golding, not break."

"I understand; thank you, Sir."

"Good. Now, off you go, we both have a busy day ahead of us."

"Wait!"

Warden Glass paused at the sudden outburst.

"I-I don't mean to overstep my bounds, but…I was wondering if you would be willing to allow me an interview with Roman Torchwick?"

The warden raised an eyebrow in intrigue. "Crystal mentioned that you had asked her about Torchwick. No doubt you think this is the opportunity of a lifetime for you, to pick the brain of Vale's most infamous criminal; I admire the ambition, really, I do."

Ama sat uncomfortably still, she took a hard swallow as she awaited the prison-keeper's answer.

"I can't help but think it would be a waste to deprive a model student such as yourself of this."

Ama's face perked up.

"I want you to meet with the prison counselor, and I'll be assigning an extra guard; under these conditions, you'll have a sit-down with Torchwick by the end of the week."

"T-thank you, Sir." said Ama, flabbergasted. "I don't know what to say."

"Do not thank me for this, Ms. Golding; you'll quickly learn that Roman Torchwick is quite a bit more than you're used to dealing with, don't be ashamed to end the interview early if you need to." said the warden, sitting back down.

The rest of the week passed by in a blur. Ama had a sit-down with the prison counselor, just as the warden had requested; after she was given the all-clear, she went about her work as usual. She interviewed the usual thugs and thieves, all the while working on her questions for Torchwick. Before she knew it, the day had arrived.

Ama sat in the meeting room, awaiting the arrival of the most dangerous man in the City of Vale. An additional guard stood in the corner of the room, opposite the door.

"I feel the need to remind you how dangerous this man is." said the new guard. "We have no idea how he'll behave in this situation, but we are authorized to immediately subdue him at our discretion if things start to escalate."

"I understand; do what you have to officer, but please try to give me as much time as you can." responded Ama, anxiously.

"I still think the warden is making a big mistake doing this; letting a college kid interview Roman Torchwick, honestly, this whole thing is probably just a publicity stunt."

A knock was heard on the door, putting the room into a deathly silence. One of the guards by the door opened it, allowing two more guards to enter the room with an orange-haired man. The man was roughly seated in the chair opposite the table from Ama, before the escorts left the room to stand guard outside.

"Well," said the criminal, "I must've been a good boy; first time out of solitary in what I'm guessing was a month-or-so and my first order of business is a meeting with a pretty little thing like you."

"Mr. Torchwick," said Ama, tentatively, "I've been looking forward to meeting with you."

"Mmm, I bet you have, Sweetheart."

"I don't really appreciate-"

"So tell me, you're not the shrink around here are you? No, you look much too young. Student? Intern?"

"I will be asking the questions in this interview, if you please; but your deduction is correct, I am a student, and I would like to begin."

"Ooh, deduction, good word but not quite the one I had in mind, try switching out that first letter."

"Mr. Torchwick, please."

"Oh just call me Roman."

" **Mr. Torchwick** ; if you don't mind, I would like to start the interview." said Ama, getting agitated.

"What's there to know, Goldilocks; I'm the best criminal in the city, I'm the best **dressed** criminal in the **world** , **and** I'm the one criminal these guys **wish** they could hold in this place. That should be all the important details you need for your little homework assignment."

"Like you're getting out of here, Torchwick." said one of the guards.

"Aren't I?" replied the convict, turning around in his chair.

"That a threat!?"

"Stop!" cried Ama, startling everyone. The intern composed herself and shuffled some of her papers. "Why don't we focus on that ego of yours, Mr. Torchwick; why exactly are you so sure of yourself?"

"Because I'm just that good, of course." replied Torchwick, turning back to the girl.

"In other words, your attitude is a textbook case of narcissism."

"Listen, Honey; when you've lived through the kind of shit that I have and still end up on top of the criminal underworld of a major city when you're still in your twenties, I think you've earned the privilege of a little narcissism."

"So, you think you've earned everything you have, and you think your ego is justified?"

"Absolutely; every penny in my bank accounts, every piece of property I use, and every woman that comes sauntering up to me looking for a night to remember." responded Torchwick, confidently.

Ama briefly looked angry, but quickly hid it. "You seem **quite** focused on talking about women today. Is this normal behavior for you?"

"Y'know, now that you mention it, Blondie, not really; I guess I'm feeling a little…deprived."

"A few weeks of solitary confinement will do that to you." said Ama, flatly.

"Exactly! No human contact for weeks, it's practically torture!" cried Roman, in dramatic fashion. "And even before that, the only company I've had in here are lesser prisoners and shitty guards!"

"Hey!" called one of the officers, indicating their presence in the room.

"In fact," said Roman in a low voice, completely ignoring the guard, "it's been **far** too long since I've seen a woman." he finished, standing up and hunching over the table.

He moved before anyone had time to react. Ama sat in shock, her mind scrambling to figure out what was happening to her. Torchwick was perched on the table, his lips crushed against those of the younger woman as he held her hair in his fist.

The guards were the first to shake off their confusion. They rushed over and pulled the criminal off of the still-bewildered girl. After a few strong hits, the inmate was subdued, and the guards dragged him out of the room.

Ama's mind finally caught up to her; she gasped in horror and covered her mouth with her hands. Tears welled up in the student's eyes, as all of the frustrations she had since the interview started crashed down on her at last. She buried her face in her hands and let herself go.

The two remaining guards walked over and comforted the sobbing girl.

"Hey, c'mon, let's go." said one of the men, as he ushered Ama out of her seat. "Let's get you back to the office, Crystal will take care of you."

As they walked through the halls, Ama continued to sob silently into her hands. The guards scanned their surroundings, staying ever vigilant but paying no mind to the distraught girl. Hidden beneath her hands, her lips curled into a wicked grin; behind her fingers, her eyes opened, one pink and the other brown."

* * *

Back in solitary confinement, Roman Torchwick sat hunched over in the corner of his cell, seemingly in pain. He reached into his mouth and pulled out a folded piece of paper hidden under his tongue. He unfolded it to reveal a note written in a familiar, curly handwriting.

 _Make lots of friends, and_

 _I'll get you out early for_

 _good behavior._

 _-Neo_

 _P.S. How good do I look in_

 _glasses?_

Roman bared his teeth in a confident smile.

* * *

 **A/N: And there we are, the groundwork for Roman's daring escape has been laid. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a review so I can get some feedback. How many of you immediately figured out that Ama was Neo in disguise? Next chapter has already been started, hopefully I can get that one out a little quicker. Til next time, have a nice day.**


	5. Chapter 5: Laying the Groundwork

**A/N: I'm back! Sorry this took so long, been busy with work and various games that came out and grabbed my attention. This chapter also ended up being quite a bit longer than I anticipated; I ended up adding a few scenes and then decided to split it in two for pacing reasons. The second part will be uploaded a week from today. Til then, a belated Merry Christmas to all of you. Enjoy.**

* * *

Chapter 5: Laying the Groundwork

Things had slowed down significantly in recent weeks at the Vale City Police Department. While everyone felt relieved that the city's most dangerous criminal was behind bars, there was undoubtedly an undercurrent of boredom permeating the precinct. The White Fang had started stepping up their activity, but other local criminals and Hunters made sure they didn't cause too much trouble. The officers simply had no reason to be on edge when all they had to deal with were small-time criminals and the occasional joyriding teenagers. Their doldrums had set in so deep that almost no one noticed a young woman of rather diminutive stature, dressed in business attire walk up to the front desk.

"Excuse me, can I help you, Miss?" asked the officer at the desk.

"It's Detective, actually." replied the woman, holding up a badge. "And yes, I'm here to retrieve a particular piece of evidence from this precinct."

"Evidence pickup? Of what, exactly?"

"Roman Torchwick's cane, some open cases over in Eastport need it for forensics."

"Roman Torchwick's been locked up for months, cases are probably useless now."

"Tell that to my superior officer who has a stick up his ass when it comes to having all our case files in order."

"O-okay, listen Detective…"

"Gialatta."

"Detective Gialatta, I'm going to need to check my inbox to see if we received a requisition for the evidence."

The woman sighed. "Fine, fine, but make it quick, I'm in a hurry."

The officer clicked away at his computer, looking for form in question. "Oh, here we go. Evidence requisition for one weaponized cane belonging to Roman Torchwick, Detective Gialatta to personally receive the package. Email came in a couple days ago, sorry 'bout that."

"I'm sure it just got lost in the mail." replied the detective, rolling her eyes.

"Heh, yeah." responded the officer, as he turned to face the bullpen behind him. "Hey Ramsey, go get Torchwick's cane from evidence."

"Aww, how come I gotta do it?" whined the begrudging officer as he got up from his desk.

Detective Gialatta checked her watch; she tapped her foot impatiently, as she waited for the man to return.

"So," started the bored desk officer, looking to make small-talk, "you're unusually short for a detective."

Gialatta raised an eyebrow. "Maybe that's why I spend most of my time behind a desk like you."

The officer's face went blank and he just nodded along; he wasn't in the mood to counter the snide remark.

The next few minutes passed in less-than-companionable silence until Officer Ramsey came back.

"Here's your cane thing."

"Thank you," said the detective, taking the item, "now my boss won't grill me over an open fire."

"I know what that's like." said Ramsey.

"Hey, wait!" called the other officer, to no avail, as the detective walked out of the building. "She didn't sign the release form for that."

"Eh, we'll just fill it out ourselves; it's what we do half the time anyway." responded Ramsey. "She was pretty hot, though."

"A little too short, but yeah, I see what you're saying."

"I dunno, man, short chicks are pretty fun."

"Hey, Ramsey."

"Yeah."

"You're the one writing up the release form."

"Fuck."

* * *

Junior stood at the bar of his nightclub, organizing the final shipment of liquor replacing all of the drinks that were destroyed in the recent fight. He had finally gotten the club back in order; they had ordered a new mixing board for the DJ, re-tiled the glass floor, and replaced the counter-top on the bar. Junior's crew was scattered throughout the main room, polishing the tables and moving crates of supplies; the twins were either making sure any decorations were properly placed or sharpening their blades. All-in-all, a quiet afternoon.

"Uh, Boss, we got a problem!"

Almost.

"What is it!?"

"We got a cop in the club."

Everyone's head immediately snapped towards the main door, as a short, grey-eyed woman with shoulder-length, brown hair entered the club. Her slacks and business jacket gave her an aura of authority as she stepped forward, badge held up in one hand and the other behind her back. Her eyes shifted colors, one blue and one green, as a smile spread across her face.

"Calm down," said Junior, with a sigh, "it's just out _associate_."

The woman chuckled quietly as her outfit fell apart like shards of glass, revealing a grinning Neo underneath the façade.

"Yeah, yeah, you're real amusing." said Junior. "Did you get it?"

Neo moved her hand from behind her back, revealing Roman's prized cane for all to see. She twirled the weapon between her hands and spun around the dance floor, before coming to a stop at the bar.

"Good. It's hard enough to fabricate an identity for a university student, even harder for a government job like a cop; I had to pull a lot of strings to make those for you, good to know neither of them went to waste."

Neo simply responded by rolling her eyes and placed the cane on the counter-top.

"Now, how are you gonna smuggle that thing into the prison?"

Neo smirked.

* * *

The advantage of drawing the ire of prison staff was that the procedure for dealing with such situations was standardized and, therefore, easily exploitable. One of the good points of having his nice foam mattress taken away, for example, meant that Roman was left with a shitty regular mattress that could be stripped down into something useful. And so, for the past day, Roman had pulled apart the seams of his bed and used the plastic wire to make himself a fishing line. Once he had that, Roman was all set to start rallying his forces.

Prisoners in solitary were given a couple of pens and plenty of paper to write on, a courtesy to keep the boredom and isolation from driving them mad. That's all Roman needed to start the cogs in his great machine. He considered all of the different groups of inmates he had met in his brief time here, he considered the prison schedule and the guard rotations, and he considered how long it would take the VPD to arrive at the prison once the situation escalated beyond the guards' control. With all of that in mind, he began writing his instructions; specific groups of inmates would be instructed to carry out specific tasks once things got going, all leading up to a glorious escape…for some of them.

Despite being in solitary confinement, the isolated inmates were far from being unable to communicate. Once Roman's battle plans were finished, he folded the papers into triangles and attached them to the plastic string; he slid the papers under the cell door, across the hall and into other cells. Failed attempts resulted in him pulling the note back using the string for another attempt; replies were received in the same manner. This went on until the messages had been passed all the way down the hall and made their way into the main cell blocks. Once there, the plans spread like wildfire through the use of tap codes, smuggled cell phones, and foreign languages. With everything in place, all Roman had to do now was wait.

* * *

When Neo returned to Vale City Penitentiary, once again in the guise of Amarella Golding, she found the atmosphere in the offices to be expectedly dismal. Workers gave her sympathetic looks as she walked by, some of them even covering their mouths in surprise upon seeing her. She reached Crystal's desk, prompting the secretary to look up at the blonde college girl she had last seen in tears.

"A-Ama, you're here! After what happened…I thought for sure you weren't coming back."

"Well, no one ever said this job would be easy." said 'Ama,' with a slight smile.

Crystal smiled back. "You're tougher than you look, I'll give you that."

Ama nodded. "I'm ready to get back to work."

"Well, your desk is still there." said Crystal, pointing to the metal desk across from her. "You can start right away."

Ama set to work, researching prisoners and preparing interview questions. On the surface, this was just part of Neo's cover, but there was another reason for it as well; Roman would likely want to recruit some of the more 'talented' inmates that could potentially escape with him, to say nothing of the other escapees that would owe him favors. So far, none of the criminals she had interviewed seemed particularly promising. Corvo could have been an asset, but would probably run off the first chance he got. Angel wouldn't be very useful and probably wouldn't try to escape the prison anyway. Red Jack was certainly dangerous, but far too unstable; if anything, he would end up becoming more of a hindrance than a help. Ama was in the middle of forming a new list of candidates when Crystal came up to her desk.

"Things going well so far?" asked the older woman.

"Huh…oh, yeah." replied Ama, looking up from her notes. "Actually, I have a few inmates picked out, but I was wondering if I could take a look at any personal belongings they might have had. It might help me find out more about them and better do my job."

"Hmm, that's an interesting angle. I'll have a couple of guards escort you to the confiscation locker."

A few minutes later, the usual guards Ama was familiar with came to take her to her destination.

"I'm surprised you came back at all, let alone so soon." said one of the escorts.

"It was a risk I knew I was taking when I signed up for this job. I can't let one bad experience keep me down."

"Well, it's good to see you're feeling better."

"We're here." said the other guard, stopping in front of a door. "This room contains all the personal belongings of every inmate in the prison."

The guards showed her into the massive room and directed her to the belongings of the prisoners she asked for; the whole collection was alphabetized, making it easy to find what she was looking for. Looking through the T-section, she noticed a familiar white coat, brown slacks, and black hat in a bag. More importantly, Neo now had the location of the confiscation locker. Having memorized the route they took to get here, it would be a simple task to pinpoint its position on the prison's emergency evacuation map. The map was kept blank except for the bare minimum of necessary information, for security reasons, but that wouldn't be an issue for a professional like her. Now all she needed to do was get this information into the hands of someone who could carry out her plan.

The rest of the week continued on as normal; Ama interviewed various inmates, taking note of any that had skill sets that could be useful. A few decent fighters could come in handy, one woman could potentially be a good scout, and one guy was pretty good at hacking digital locks. When Ama finally had some time to herself, she headed straight for the Warden's office.

"Come in." said the man from inside his office.

"Excuse me, Warden Glass."

"Miss Golding, I heard you were back. How are you feeling?" said the Warden, putting his papers down.

"I'm doing well, Sir."

"That's good to hear. Now, what can I do for you today?"

"I want to take another shot at Roman Torchwick!" Ama declared, as confidently as she could.

The Warden hesitated for a moment. "I see. I certainly wasn't expecting such a request; I thought after what happened that you'd want to stay as far away from Torchwick as possible."

"My first interview with him was a travesty, but I don't want to let that define my time working here. If anything, I want to redeem myself, to show him that **I** am the one in control."

"Mmm, I understand. Very well, I will grant you your request; however, I will be tightening security even more this time. You'll have one more guard than before, and Torchwick will be handcuffed to the table this time."

"Good enough for me. Thank you, Sir."

The next day, Ama sat in the interview room, awaiting Torchwick's arrival.

"I apologize for the distress you were caused last time, Miss Golding. I want to assure you that that will **not** happen again." said one of the guards.

Ama nodded, noting the third officer standing behind her.

A knock was heard on the door, followed by two guards being allowed into the room with Roman Torchwick held between them. They sat him roughly into the chair and cuffed one of his hands to the leg of the table. The escorts stepped out to guard the door once they had finished their 'delivery.'

"Well, hello, Hotness. Back for more already?" said the orange-haired thief.

"Hmph, things won't quite go the same way this time, Mr. Torchwick." replied Ama, sternly.

"Oh come on, don't be like that. Why so serious, Sweetheart? I just wanna get to know you."

"I think I'll be the one getting to know you today, and not in the way you have in mind. You're going to answer my questions today."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because I have something you want."

Roman raised his eyebrows in anticipation of what the girl would say next.

"I had access to your personal belongings earlier this week, and I found out about one of your vices." said Ama, pulling a long, brown object from one of her pockets. "For obvious reasons, this isn't one of the cigars from your coat, but I do believe it's the same brand."

"Hmm, I haven't had a good smoke since they took my cigars back when they locked me in solitary."

"Then we have an accord," said Ama, holding up the cigar, "answer my question and I'll give you this."

"You drive a pretty good bargain there, Angel Face. What d'you wanna know?"

"I'd like to know how you got your start here in Vale. Despite being the kingdom's most notorious criminal, the fact is that not a lot of people know how you got that reputation; it actually seems like you just came out of nowhere one day."

"Oh, I see. I suppose it's true that even I was a nobody once. I didn't get my start in Vale, I actually moved around quite a bit before finally making my way here; by the time I arrived in this city I was already a small-time criminal, that was back when the old mob bosses still ran things. I ended up stealing from one of those bosses, but he ended up more impressed than angry; dunno of that's because of how much I stole or that I had the balls to steal it. After that, he took me under his wing and forged me into the devilishly handsome criminal mastermind I am today."

Ama finished writing down her notes and looked up at Roman with a smile. "Thank you, Mr. Torchwick. That wasn't so hard, was it?"

"Hey, remember our deal, Dollface."

"Of course." said Ama, handing over the cigar.

Roman brought the stick of tobacco up to his nose, inhaling its dry, earthy aroma. "That's the good stuff. Now, I'm guessing I'll have to answer another question if I want this lit, right?"

"Correct."

"Alright, shoot."

"You told me how you learned to be a criminal, but that still doesn't explain how you became the de facto leader of Vale's criminal underworld."

"Well that's simple: war." replied Roman, rolling the cigar with his fingers. "My mentor got killed by his biggest rival, and I got revenge. The whole city was in chaos, and when the ashes cleared…I was left standing; that's all there is to it."

"I see, interesting."

"Hey, hey, we had a deal." said Roman, holding up the cigar.

"Yes, of course. Officer, if you would." said Ama, turning to the officer next to the door, the one she had gotten to know smoked fairly regularly.

With a groan the officer begrudgingly pulled out a cigarette lighter and walked over to Roman.

"That better be either butane or Burn Dust." said Roman, as he bit one of the ends off the cigar.

"Dunno, I just know it lights my cigarettes."

"Hmph, cigarettes; y'know, I used to be as classless as that once." said Roman, holding the end of the cigar over the flame. "Then my mentor taught me better."

"Says the guy who forced himself on a college girl."

"Yeah, well, desperate times and all." said Roman, as he took a puff from the cigar. "Butane, huh? Not quite as good as Burn Dust, but it doesn't ruin the flavor."

The guard scoffed as he returned to his post.

"Mr. Torchwick," said Ama, "if you don't mind, I still have a few more questions to ask you."

"After this treat, you can ask me whatever you want."

"Well, you won't be getting another so try not to smoke it all at once."

"I'll try not to." said Roman, with a smirk.

The rest of the interview proceeded normally, a stark contrast from their first session a week ago. 'Ama' went on to ask some more questions about Roman's early days as a criminal, questions she already knew the answers to and that weren't really relevant to today. She made a point not to ask any personal questions or anything regarding close associates. When Roman's cigar was about a third of the way burned, she decided it was about time to wrap things up.

"Well, Mr. Torchwick, this has been very productive."

"Always happy to lend a hand to the educational system."

"Just not through taxes, I'm sure."

"Tax evasion was probably among the long list of things they charged me with."

"In any case, thank you for your cooperation today." said Ama, closing her binder and standing up. "I expected the worst today, and so I didn't have many questions prepared. I'll try and get a session scheduled with you tomorrow so I can pick your brain again."

"I don't mind, as long as I get another present." said Roman, holding up the cigar she had given him.

"I'll consider it."

Roman smirked as the guards outside came into the room to take him back to his cell. They uncuffed him from the table and pulled him to his feet.

"Y'know," Roman said, looking at Ama, "you're really short."

"I'm comfortable with my height." said Ama, matter-of-factly.

"I don't doubt it."

The guards took Roman out of the room and brought him back to his cell. He sat on the bed, enjoying what was left of his cigar. The uncultured guards wouldn't have noticed a minor detail amiss with the stick of tobacco, but a connoisseur such as Roman certainly did. The label showed the most subtle sign of having been removed and reapplied. Before the lit end could reach the strip of paper, Roman removed it, revealing a two word message written on the inside.

 _Showtime, tomorrow._

Roman touched the label with the burning tobacco, erasing the note. He sat at his desk and began writing some messages of his own.

* * *

"Alright, so Torchwick's getting everything prepped for tomorrow?" asked Junior, cleaning a drinking glass at his bar.

Neo nodded in response, then took a sip from her own glass.

"Good. Now, you," said Junior, turning to one of his grunts, "make sure you don't screw up your part."

"Got it, Boss."

"We've arranged for the prison's usual janitor to…take a few sick days due to a minor injury; you should have no problem getting in with the disguise we got you. Just find the confiscation locker and leave the items there."

"I know, Boss."

"I'm just making **sure** you know, since **I** never know when you guys are gonna do something stupid."

Neo giggled quietly.

"And you!" said Junior, turning to the tricolor-haired woman.

Neo put her hand on her chest and gave the man a flabbergasted expression. Junior could practically hear her asking 'Me!?' as if she had just been accused of the biggest scandal of the year.

"Bumbling as they are, these are still my men; you're asking a lot of me to put one of them at risk like this. You're **sure** he'll be out of there before the fireworks start?"

Neo just smiled and nodded confidently.

"Alright, let's do this."

* * *

 **A/N: Next week, the breakout begins. Some of you may have noticed there is a shoutout to another fic in here; Detective! Neo's surname, Gialatta, is the surname she takes in Ordon's 'How I Learned to Stop Caring and Help Usher in a Grimm Apocalypse,' another Roman and Neo fic that I cannot recommend enough. Seriously, go check that one out if you haven't already.**


	6. Chapter 6: Running Riot

**A/N: Okay, I'm a little late. This would've been up a few hours ago, but I had to perform the wonderful task of shoveling snow. In any case, here's the chapter; enjoy, and please leave a review letting me know if there's anything I can improve on.**

* * *

Chapter 6: Running Riot

The next day, Ama walked into the prison's main entrance just like she did on any other day. She entered just behind a man in a custodial uniform who had quite a number of brooms and mops in his cart, including one with a black, metal handle lost in the middle. The guards stopped him at the desk; Ama watched the scene unfold with wary eyes.

"You the replacement janitor they sent?" asked one of the guards.

"Uh huh."

"Thank god, I didn't know what we were gonna do when we heard that Old Joe sprained his ankle."

"Yeah, shame about that." said the janitor.

"Hey! What's up with the frilly umbrella in your cart!?"

Ama's eyes narrowed. The pink parasol couldn't be disguised like Roman's cane, they had to come up with an excuse for it to be in the cleaning cart; now, it was up to the mobster grunt to remember what that excuse was.

"Oh, that thing; it's always kinda embarrassing. It was a gift…from my niece; I always keep it with me in case it rains."

"Is that right? You and your niece must be close;" said the guard, "that's really lucky, I wish I had more time to spend with my nephews."

"Heh, yeah, lucky." said the janitor, nodding along.

"Well, we won't hold you up anymore, you got your work cut out for you as it is." said the other guard.

"Right, thanks." said the janitor, moving on into the building.

Ama released the breath she had been holding and headed to her own place of work. She had informed the warden yesterday about the 'progress' she had made with Torchwick and requested that another interview be held today; he was the last person she was scheduled to interview.

The day practically flew by as the anticipation rose, the interviews all blending together into a blur. There was no point in identifying potential recruits anymore, the ones that had caught Neo's eye would be rounded up after the prison break…if they managed to escape.

In the late afternoon, the time had finally come. Ama sat in her chair as the guards brought Torchwick into the room.

"Well, here we are again, eh Shorty?" asked the criminal, with a smile on his face.

"Yes, here we are. Are you ready?" replied Ama, with a wink; the eye turned an ever-so-slightly darker shade of blue, a change subtle enough that the guards didn't even notice.

"Ready as I'll ever be, Sweetheart."

A sound, like pieces of broken glass being steadily dropped into a pile, caught the attention of one of the guards, as the two holding Torchwick moved to seat him.

"Hey, what the hell is that?" asked the guard.

The officers by the door looked over to his colleague. "What is it?"

"I dunno; up there, by the camera. What is that?"

Sure enough, there was something strange happening in front of the security camera in the corner of the room. A glassy plane of what could only be described as solid air was floating just in front of the camera.

"What're you guys going on about?" asked the guard standing behind Ama, seeing everyone in the room go eerily still. "Guys?"

Without warning, the scene in front of him shattered like glass; a metal chair flew towards his face and he saw black.

The other guards practically jumped at the sudden loud noises; their heads snapped toward the back of the room, only to see Ama sitting there as if nothing was amiss. The tranquil scene was shattered, quite literally, as a chair flew towards the guard next to the door and struck him in the head. A yellow blur followed shortly afterward, forcing the guard holding Torchwick's side opposite to the door into the concrete wall behind him.

With one side of his body now free, the orange-haired criminal grabbed the other guard holding him by the throat and gave him a vicious headbutt straight to the nose. Roman pushed the man back and swept his feet, causing him to fall backwards onto the floor; the guard's head snapped back on impact, hitting the floor and knocking him out cold.

By this point, the guard furthest from the door had reacted to the sudden chaos and was doing his best to resist being subdued by the same short, blonde girl he had been charged to protect.

"Heads up!" said Roman, as he jumped forward and gave the man a shoulder tackle.

The tackle broke the guard's stance, causing him to stumble back a little. Seeing an opening, Ama kicked him behind his knee, putting him even more off-balance. Roman punched the officer in the face, which was followed up by Ama circling around to the front and delivering a kick to the side of the head. Roman kicked the disoriented man in the gut, and then elbowed the back of his neck after he bent forward; the guard had finally been put down for the count.

"Nicely done." said Roman.

Ama fell down, catching herself as she hit the floor. Small cracks began to form on her skin and clothes, before quickly disappearing.

"Hey, you alright?" asked Roman, leaning down and placing a hand on the young woman's back.

"So many images at once is…stressful." she replied, as she calmed her heavy breathing. "The one in front of the camera will go down once I'm far enough away from this room."

"Yeah well, I'm pretty sure they'll have a lot more to deal with by then." said Roman, helping the girl to her feet.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the exercise yard, the inmates seemed to be going about their usual daily routines. The guards watched quietly from the sidelines, as the prisoners worked out, played cards, or talked amongst themselves. No one noticed that anything was amiss, no one noticed the whispers being exchanged by the weight racks, and no one noticed the glances sent across the yard from one group to another.

The clock struck three, it was time for the inmates to return to their cells. They gathered at the doors uncharacteristically quickly, causing some of the guards to reach for their batons. The prisoners continued to congregate until there were enough of them to overwhelm the guards.

It started with a flurry of punches from multiple attackers, prompting the guards to beat them back with their batons. More inmates made their way to the front, carrying metal equipment from the weightlifting area. The baton-wielding guards found themselves forced back by a bare barbell being used as an improvised polearm, jabbing at them from out of their range. Some of the officers reached for their tasers, only to be quickly disarmed once they stopped swinging; those that succeeded quickly found that a stun weapon was insufficient when dealing with such a large crowd. After standing their ground for a few minutes, the guards' line finally broke, allowing the inmates into the building to continue their uprising.

By this point, the alarms had already been triggered; the lookouts in the watchtowers having sounded them as soon as the fighting began. Vale City Penitentiary was on high alert.

* * *

With the alarms wailing and a crowd of rowdy prisoners running amok, all of the guards moved to contain the riot before it could get any more out of control. This gave Roman and Neo the opening they needed to move freely throughout the prison without having to worry about prying eyes. With the entire prison staff occupied, the criminal duo quickly made their way to the cell-block control room, which 'Ama' had previously deduced the location of during her studies of the prison layout.

"It should be right in here." she said, as they arrived at an unmarked door at the end of a hall.

"Right; knock, knock." said Roman, as his partner frantically banged on the door.

"Let me in, please!" she cried.

"Who's out there!?" asked a voice from inside.

"Amarella Golding, the intern; please, open the door!" she yelled, with terror in her voice.

"A-all right, hold on!"

"Hurry!" she yelled, as the door could be heard unlocking.

The door swung open, presenting the man inside with the sight of Ama standing calmly with Roman Torchwick right behind her.

"A dangerous criminal is following me." said the girl, with a devilish smirk.

Roman lunged forward as Ama stepped aside; he punched the guard in the throat and threw him headfirst into the frame of the door, knocking him unconscious. A second officer in the room turned around, reacting to the commotion; Ama cartwheeled into him, locking his neck between her legs and squeezing until he too lost consciousness.

Roman closed the door behind him after dragging the first guard into the room. He sat down at the control and looked over the various buttons, dials, levers, and monitors in front of him.

"All right, let's see what we're working with here."

Neo cleared her throat to get Roman's attention, before gesturing to the console next to her.

Roman gave the controls a once over. "Oh, that's what I'm talking about."

* * *

"How are things looking?" asked Warden Glass.

"Not bad, it certainly could've been worse." replied Crystal. "With all of the guards that responded, most of the inmates have been subdued."

"What about damages?"

"Some guards have been injured and a security door was forced open; honestly, though, I'm more worried about the pipes that were ripped off the walls. Many of those pipes contained cables for security cameras all over the facility, security feeds are down all over the building and will take some time to repair. Maybe it's time to upgrade to a more modern system, wireless perhaps?"

"Hmm, you're probably right, this isn't the first time we've had this issue. I'll start allocating the funds tomo-"

The warden was interrupted by a loud buzzing noise that permeated even the thick concrete walls of the prison.

"What was that?" asked the warden with concern.

Just as he asked that, the phone on his desk began ringing; the call was coming from the main security room.

"What's going on!?" asked the warden, putting the phone on speaker.

"Sir, the cell-blocks have been opened!" replied the man on the other end, frantically.

"What, which ones!?"

"ALL OF THEM!"

* * *

With the cell doors open, almost every inmate in the facility poured out into the halls. The guards, who had previously been doing well to subdue the rioting prisoners, were quickly overwhelmed by the new wave of adversaries. Most of the unleashed inmates focused on attacking the now-fearful guards, allowing the initial rioters to get back in the fight; other prisoners used the chaos to their advantage and ran off to accomplish more specific tasks.

Roman and 'Ama' looked on from the monitors in the cell-block control room, delighting in the mayhem they had caused.

"Now **this** is a prison riot! I've really outdone myself if I do say so." said Roman, excitedly.

The disguised Neo nodded along with a small smile on her face.

"What d'ya say we join in the fun?"

Neo's smile turned devious in response.

The partners-in-crime left the control room and waded out into the veritable sea of bodies moving erratically through the halls. Punches were thrown, objects were torn down, and the occasional person was thrown through the air. The entire prison was in complete chaos, allowing Roman and Neo to move through its corridors with impunity; the orange-haired inmate led his partner by the arm through the mob, knocking aside anyone who decided to get in his way.

At this point, the rioting had spread to most of the facility; even the offices were being targeted, though holding off the assault thanks to their secure doors. The raucous inmates continued to pound at the titanium slab with whatever they could get their hands on, hoping to chip away at the barrier. More and more prisoners were arriving at the door when suddenly a loud bang was heard around them, causing their ears to ring.

Before they could react, the inmates were set upon by elite guards in full riot gear; the officers carried shields, body armor, bean-bag shotguns, and concussion grenades. Within a matter of minutes, the crowd in front of the offices was dispersed or incapacitated; satisfied with their work, the guards prepared to move on to the cell-blocks. Even with the help of other elite guards being deployed around the prison, they had a hard fight ahead of them.

Roman and Neo had managed to make it out of the cell-blocks and were approaching their destination. The sounds of gunfire and concussive blasts indicated that the prison's elite riot-control officers had most likely been deployed, it was only a matter of time before they…

"Stop right there!"

…found him.

"Let go of the girl, turn around and face me!" ordered the guard.

Roman reacted quickly, pulling 'Ama' in front of him and reaching into his left sleeve; he turned around with his left arm across her collarbone, his right hand holding a shank against the side of her throat.

"I don't think you guys understand how this works, so let me spell it out for you;" he said, pressing the makeshift knife against the underside of his hostage's chin, "you turn a blind eye, and this little lady here doesn't get hurt."

The five officers were hesitant, only two of them daring to inch forward.

"We gotta take him down, we'll use a stun grenade." whispered one of the guards in the back of the formation.

"Are you crazy?" responded another. "That'll end up hurting the girl."

"What's it gonna be?" asked Roman. "If I'm not mistaken, you guys have a lot more to deal with than just me."

"And risk you killing that girl!?" asked the guard in front.

"What, her? She's just my insurance policy so I don't get bugged by the likes of you; play nice and I'll let her go when this is all over."

The guards continued to stare down Torchwick, as a series of loud noises sounded throughout the halls.

"This isn't over Torchwick," said the lead guard, as he reluctantly turned his gun away, "we're coming back for you!"

"W-what!?" cried Ama in fear.

"Now, now, don't you worry, Sweetcheeks. If this all goes according to plan, you won't have to worry about a thing."

The guards that had stopped them ran off to join their comrades in securing the rest of the prison. Roman dragged his 'hostage' with him to the confiscation locker, where he released his hold on her.

Neo giggled as she shed her disguise, all traces of 'Amarella Golding' falling away like shards of glass. "How was my performance?" she asked as she laughed.

Roman chuckled. "Oh, if you weren't my partner-in-crime you'd be the best actress in the kingdom."

Neo covered her mouth with one hand, feigning a look of shock. "Ooh, why thank you, kind sir." she said, giving a bow.

Roman began rummaging through as many people's belongings as he could to see if any valuables had been confiscated. Neo rolled her eyes and headed over to the T-section to retrieve her boss's belongings. She tossed him the bag and sat down on one of the tables, waiting for him to get changed.

"Aren't you going to turn around?" asked Roman.

Neo simply sat there, staring at him with an innocent smile on her face.

"Right." said Roman, unzipping his orange jumpsuit.

Neo got down off the table and walked over to the lockers on the side of the room. "By the way, where'd you get that knife you threatened me with?" she asked.

"Filed down my toothbrush to make it, wasn't easy, then I tied it to my arm with plastic wire from my bed." replied Roman, as he put his coat on. "Speaking of which, I think we're gonna need something a little bigger if we wanna bust outta here."

Neo smiled and tossed him a mop she found leaning against the lockers.

"Um…not quite what I had in mind."

Neo drew her thumb across her neck and mimicked pulling her hair, sticking her tongue out and rolling her eyes in an exaggerated representation of death.

Roman pulled the head off of the mop, revealing the familiar curved handle of his Melodic Cudgel. "Oh, Neo, you shouldn't have." he said, smiling wickedly.

Neo smirked and propped her parasol, which had also been leaning against the locker, over her shoulder.

"Right, now we just have to wait for my lackeys to…" said Roman, getting cut off by the sound of a large explosion, "…blow up the boiler room."

With that said, Roman and Neo left the confiscation locker and rejoined the chaos in the prison. Neo guided her boss to where she figured a boiler explosion would have caused the most damage. Any prisoner or guard who saw them and tried to stop them was quickly beaten aside by the now-armed criminal duo. The inmates that had been in on the escape plan followed Roman through the halls, eager to reach the freedom they had been promised. When they finally reached their destination, they found themselves blocked by a heavily damaged wall, cracked but unbroken.

"Huh, that's no good." said Roman, raising his cane in front of him. The end cap flipped open, and with a squeeze of the trigger an explosive shell blasted apart what was left of the wall. "Much better!"

Roman and Neo walked out of the building, their accumulated band of criminals following close behind. It wouldn't be long before the inmates inside the building noticed the hole and would start making their own escape.

The breach had been on the side of the building, not too close to the bus depot, but not as far away as it would've been had they exited via the rear. The buses were normally used when large numbers of inmates needed to be transported across the kingdom, something those same inmates would take advantage of today. Roman led the crowd along the wall until they reached the depot, where an unpleasant surprise was waiting for them.

"Hold it right there!" said a rather important-looking guard holding a megaphone. "If you all surrender peacefully, we'll take you in without incident; if not, we **will** use force!"

Some of the inmates looked hesitant, unsure of whether or not they could successfully take on the row of armed guards before them. Even if their weapons weren't lethal, the officers still had a tremendous advantage. Failure here meant an even harsher punishment than if they just gave up quietly. All of those thoughts were quickly forgotten as the prisoners heard a single sound among them.

He was laughing, Roman Torchwick was laughing. "Don't worry about what 'Mr. Bigshot' there says," he said to the inmates behind him, "you just keep all of them busy, my lovely partner and I will take care of the rest."

Roman fired three explosive rounds into the line of guards, injuring some and sending others flying. The mob of inmates charged the broken line to engage the disoriented guards in close-combat. Some of the guards recovered more quickly than others and began fighting off the advancing prisoners; the guards that couldn't recover were quickly overtaken and relieved of their weapons. Fists, flashbangs, and bean-bag rounds flew through the air, as the prisoners and officers skirmished just outside the parking lot.

Roman and Neo weaved their way through the fighting crowd, quickly trouncing the few guards that blocked their path as they casually walked up to the guard captain.

"I hate to be a pain," said Roman, approaching his target, "but my friends and I **really** have to catch this next bus."

"Roman Torchwick," replied the guard, "guess I shouldn't be surprised. Were **you** the one behind this whole prison riot?"

"But of course! You guys didn't **really** think this prison would be able to hold me, did you?"

The captain grunted in frustration with Roman's cocky attitude, before he pulled out a pair of retractable stun-batons. He closed the distance faster than Roman expected, but it was nothing the experienced criminal couldn't handle. Roman backpedalled as he parried the officer's vicious blows; he made an opening by striking the guard's shoulder with Melodic Cudgel's handle, before using it to hook his wrist and pull him aside. The guard stumbled forward and just barely caught a glimpse of a white boot before it connected with his forehead, causing him to drop his batons and stumble right back towards Roman. Torchwick kicked the man in the back, sending him back to his partner, who put the captain on the ground with a kick to the shin; brought to his knees and defenseless, the guard was promptly finished off by Roman delivering a two-handed swing to the back of the head.

"And he thought he could take us." said Roman, propping his cane up on his shoulder. "Think he's dead?"

Neo shrugged.

"Well, let's just check on how our new friends are doing." said Roman, looking around at the utter chaos.

On one side, the inmates had forced the guards back into a group, surrounding them with their own stolen weapons; on the other side, guards and inmates struggled for control, as both used a mix firearms and hand-to-hand.

"Huh." Roman offhandedly shot an explosive shell into the crowd of guards, scattering the now unconscious or dead guards around the lot. "Neo, you, uh, go take care of that," he said, tilting his head towards the struggle on the other side of the depot, "I'll get the bus."

Neo grinned wickedly as she ran over to the crowd and began tearing into the guards, warping from one to the next as she threw them aside with practiced efficiency.

Roman gathered up the inmates whose attention he recently freed, and began loading them onto the nearest bus. He sat in the driver's seat and began pulling out various panels until he found the wires he was looking for. After some improvised electrical work, he had the engine growling loudly, ready to ferry them all to freedom.

"Alright, whose gonna drive?" he asked, turning to his prospective new recruits.

"I'll do it." said a slightly-built man with brown hair.

"Alright, that settles that." said Roman, as the man walked up and sat in the driver's seat. "Now, we just need to pick up my assistant and your fellow inmates and we'll be on our way."

Neo had just finished trouncing the last of the guards, earning both cheers and unnerved expressions from the inmates she was rescuing. She regarded the small crowd with a grandiose bow, as a bus pulled up behind her.

"All aboard, this is the last bus back to town!" called Roman, hanging out of the door.

Neo gestured towards the door with both arms, prompting the inmates to start filing into the vehicle. Just as the last prisoner was seated, and Neo stepped onto the bus, a large group of elite guards came out of the building led by Warden Glass himself.

"Hold it right there, Torchwick!" ordered the warden.

"Oh, so sorry," responded Roman, still hanging out of the door, "but today is the day you will always remember as the day you **almost** caught Roman Torchwick!"

Neo stared incredulously at her boss. Roman could practically hear her thinking " _They_ _ **did**_ _catch you, you were in prison_."

"What? It's the line from that pirate movie, you know I've always wanted to say that." protested Roman, as the door closed and the bus pulled away from the prison. "Just go with it."

Neo simply sighed and placed her face into the palm of her hand.

* * *

 **A/N: That's all for now. There'll be one more chapter detailing the aftermath of this little adventure, then I'll see where I go from there. Have a nice day, and I hope all of you have a Happy New Year.**


	7. Chapter 7: Parties, Pilfering, Payback

**A/N: Alright, here we go, the final chapter of Jailbreaking is here. Hope you all enjoy, and check the Author's Note at the end for some news about upcoming projects; and, as always, please leave a review as I value any feedback I can get.**

* * *

Chapter 7: Parties, Pilfering, and Payback

Warden Glass sat at his desk and sighed in frustration as Crystal passed him yet another form for him to look over and sign. The riot had caused significant damage to the prison's security system, boiler room, and one of the walls; minor damage had also been done to several doors, fences, and hallways. It all added up to a few hundred-thousand Lien in repair bills coming out of the penitentiary's budget. The warden signed the piece of paper and shoved it aside like common trash, only for Crystal to immediately replace it with the next form.

Despite the building-wide scale of the riot, the prison guards managed to prevent most of the inmates from escaping; the deployment of the elite guards allowed all but the group following Torchwick to be quickly subdued before the police arrived. Of course, by then Torchwick and his group had already escaped in a stolen prison bus; by the time the authorities found it using the built-in tracker, it had been driven into the harbor, its occupants long gone. This was the worst event in the penitentiary's history, an undeniable failure for the entire prison staff; the warden had just barely kept his job due to his rapid response to the situation.

"What's this?" asked the warden, as his secretary put an unfamiliar-looking form on his desk.

"New regulations for the screening, hiring, and supervision of interns."

Glass seethed with anger. The last thing he needed right now was to be reminded of the young woman that started this whole mess to begin with. In the investigation that followed the riot, the police discovered that the intern known as 'Amarella Golding' didn't actually exist; everything from her student history to her birth certificate had been falsified, indicating that she had deep connections in the criminal underworld. Whoever this woman was went to great lengths to make sure her fake identity would be ironclad, because authorities were still unable to discover her true identity. What they did find out was that a detective that had come by to pick up Roman Torchwick's can was also someone using a false identity, likely the same young woman in a different disguise.

"When they find that woman, I'll be sure to have an isolation cell waiting for her." said the warden.

" **After** we fix the security flaws, you mean." said Crystal.

"Yes…" replied the warden, with a sigh, "after we do that."

"It's such a shame, too, I had taken a liking to that girl."

"Don't feel bad, Crystal; right now, that _girl_ is probably laughing it up somewhere at how easily she duped you."

* * *

Neo laughed excitedly as she slammed her empty glass down on the bar. "Another!" she called.

Junior took the glass and grumpily filled it with another Strawberry Sunrise. He would've been much more eager to mix one of his most popular drinks if the person ordering was actually paying for it; unfortunately, the short woman and her orange-haired date had drinks on the house tonight in honor of their recent prison break.

"We're square now, Torchwick. Got it?" said Junior, sliding the finished drink over to Neo.

"One more thing, **then** we're square. Pyrite, tell me where he's gonna be."

"You don't even need to **ask** for that, I was planning on telling you anyway." replied Junior, fiddling with his scroll. "There, that's the location of the deal, it's going down in three days."

"And this intel is good?" asked Roman, looking over the information he just received in his inbox.

"Rock solid, I got it myself. Just make sure you put that asshole out of our misery." said Junior, reaching out his hand.

Roman chuckled. "Consider us even." he said, shaking Junior's hand.

Neo's eyes suddenly lit up, as a familiar beat began playing over the sound system. Roman recognized it, too, and began tapping his fingers along to the music.

"You've got 'Suave Criminal' by Jack Michaelson?" asked Roman.

"Of course, it's a classic; and given some of the things we do here, I figured it was appropriate."

"And here I thought I was the only one with a flair for the dramatic."

"I **love** this song!" proclaimed Neo, gleefully. "Let's dance!" she said, getting up and dragging Roman out of his own seat.

"Hey, hold on a second." protested the taller man, as his partner-in-crime pulled him to the center of the dance floor.

Neo finally let go of him and began to dance along with the song; she stepped around Roman in time to the music, ending the short routine by flicking her head towards him and meeting his eyes. Roman took the glare in stride and began his own sequence; he moved his arms to the rhythm as he stepped, ending with a slide of his fingers across the brim of his hat. Neo smiled smugly as she gave her answer, spinning into her steps and giving Roman the occasional tap on the shoulder; she ended her sequence by swiping Roman's hat and mimicking his earlier finger-slide. Roman rushed forward, taking Neo's hand and lifting it up, twirling her back and forth beneath his arm; he guided her away from him before pulling her close, her back against his chest. He let go and moved in front of her to give a grandiose bow, snatching his hat back in the process. Neo grabbed one of Roman's hands and placed her other arm across his back, as if to dance a tango. She guided him around the floor, performing the occasional spin beneath his arm, before dropping herself low to the ground on one foot; her partner reacted instantly, catching her by her back in one hand and by her elevated leg in the other. Neo brushed her nose against Roman's, before flicking his hat off his head and onto hers.

By this point, the two thieves had drawn quite the crowd, and earned more than a few claps and wolf whistles for their performance. Even Junior had to admit the two made an impressive pair on the dance floor.

"Hey, Boss, is that okay?" asked one of the Malachite twins.

"Yeah, aren't they, like, Vale's Most Wanted?" asked the other.

"It's fine, the people that come here know better than to go ratting to the police about our more…interesting clientele."

The song Roman and Neo had been dancing to ended, prompting the criminal duo to make their way back to the bar as the crowd gave them a standing ovation.

"Pour me a glass of brandy, will you, Little Bear." commanded Neo.

"And one of whiskey on the rocks for me." added Roman.

Junior sighed and poured out their respective orders, sliding the glasses across the counter when he was done.

"So, I've been meaning to ask;" said Junior, "why the prison riot? With your little partner's Semblance you probably could've escaped in a far less noisy way, probably could've even gotten out sooner."

Roman swirled his glass in his hand, letting the ice cubes clink as they fit together more closely. "Junior, Junior, Junior, that's simple. I have a reputation to keep, a bog standard prison break just won't do for a criminal of my caliber; I've gotta give them something to **talk** about, something to **remember**."

"Hm, give them too much to talk about and you might not live very long though." said Junior, as Roman lit up a cigar.

"That's why the idea's to make as big a name for myself as I can, then get out of the game before it comes back to bite me; I'll build up a nice retirement fund in that time."

Neo giggled and wrapped her arms around Roman's shoulders. She took a puff from his cigar and blew the smoke into his face. " **We'll** build up a nice retirement fund."

"Neo, the adults are talking." said Roman, his voice laced with sarcasm.

"I'm an adult, too." responded Neo, pouting.

"I wonder about that sometimes."

"Maybe I just need to _remind_ you." she said, pulling at the collar of her tailcoat.

"Junior, how many has she had tonight?" asked Roman, as the woman in question nuzzled her face into his neck.

"'Bout the same number as you."

"That makes sense." said Roman, as Neo laughed and began lightly scraping her teeth against his neck.

"I can't believe it," said Melanie, the twin in white, "she was a mute before, now she won't shut up."

"Yeah, and she's a total flirt, too." added Miltia, the red twin, with a laugh.

"She never could hold her liquor." said Roman.

"Hm hm, that's pro'ly 'cuz I'm so smol." said Neo with a drunken giggle, as she fell over into Roman's lap.

"She's so much less threatening like this." said Miltia.

"It's kind of adorable." added Melanie.

Neo leaned over and glared at the twins.

"Don't you two have work to be doing?" asked Junior.

The twins sighed, rolled their eyes, and walked off.

"Well, Junior, it's been real fun drinkin' you dry, but I'd better head home while this one can still walk." said Roman, eliciting a humming laugh from his partner.

"Alright, let me know how the _job_ goes."

"Will do. C'mon Neo, let's go." said Roman, pulling the younger woman to her feet.

"Do we hafta, I wan'ed to stay a li'l longer."

"Yes, we have to; I need you sober in three days, so best start right away." continued the orange-haired thief, dragging his inebriated associate towards the door.

* * *

Roman stepped through the door of his safehouse, glad to finally be home again. Neo clung to her boss with her arms around his neck, still drunkenly rambling about whatever came to mind.

"I think I should pro'ly wear glasses more often, don' you? I think I looked purty cute in 'em."

"You sure did, Neo; now come on, we're home and we've had a long day so we'd better get to bed."

"Hm hm hm, yes, let's get to bed." said Neo, letting go of Roman and tugging at his scarf. She succeeded in removing the gray article of clothing by the time they were in the main room of the apartment, than began tugging on Roman's coat.

"Hey, c'mon now." protested Roman, trying to get a hold of his partner as she undid a couple of buttons.

Roman managed to lead the two of them to Neo's room, where the tricolor-haired woman finally let go of him, only to slam the door shut behind her. She undid the button on her tailcoat, exposing a gratuitous amount of cleavage barely kept safe for work by her corset.

"Hm, I couldn' unbutton this at the club before; someone else might've seen." she said in a sultry tone, as she moved her hands down and unbuckled her belt.

"Now look, I know we tend to…celebrate after a big victory sometimes," said Roman, watching Neo's tailcoat drop to the floor, "but I don't think it's such a great idea tonight."

"Aww, why not?" asked Neo, dragging out her syllables as she unbuttoned and unzipped her jeans.

"Well, you're just a _little_ bit…okay, let's be perfectly honest, you're actually **really** smashed right now."

"Since when does a criminal care 'bout a girl bein' drunk or not?" she asked with a pout.

"I'm a criminal, yes, but also a gentlemen; I have a code that I follow, especially when it comes to women."

"But what about that one time…"

"Women that aren't trying to kill me."

Neo responded by puffing her cheeks and frowning in an admittedly cute way.

"Besides, we're not actually finished, we still have that rat to snuff out. Isn't that the fun part for you?"

Neo crossed her arms. "Fiiine." she conceded, falling back onto the bed with her legs hanging off the side. "Take off my boots."

Roman chuckled lightly. He moved over to his partner and carefully removed the knee-high boots from her legs.

"Pants, too. Can't sleep comfy in my day clothes."

Roman sighed, but obliged the young woman's request.

Neo, for her part, unzipped her corset before wriggling out of it and tossing it to the floor. Roman helped her get under the covers and fluffed up her pillow.

"Good night, Neo." he said, getting up to leave the room.

A hand grabbed his as he turned away. "Stay with me awhile." said Neo.

Roman kneeled back down. He held Neo's hand, watching her give the occasional stretch and yawn, until the younger woman finally drifted off to sleep.

"Good night, Neo." said Roman once more, leaning forward and kissing Neo on the forehead before leaving the room.

Roman made his way to his own room, got changed, and lay awake in bed; despite the long day and the copious amount of alcohol, he just couldn't fall asleep. He thought about his partner sleeping soundly in the other room, about the flirtatious dance they shared in the club, and about the advances she made on him throughout the night. This wasn't the first time Roman had dealt with Neo getting handsy after a few too many drinks and, every time, he would talk her down only to be left awake with a lingering feeling of regret.

"Sorry, Neo."

* * *

Three days passed by quickly, during which Roman and Neo tirelessly planned out every detail of the upcoming sting. They scoped out the meeting location, a back alley in the harbor district, and came up with a strategy to isolate their target and make sure he couldn't escape. For their plan to work they would need a fair deal of manpower; luckily, they had just freed a whole bus-load of hardened criminals from Vale City Penitentiary.

The former inmates met up in an abandoned warehouse that Roman had previously canvassed. They were a motley crew of five, but they would do for this job. Neo selected the team, having studied the prison population while she was undercover and put together profiles on any noteworthy criminals. For the job at hand, she had contacted a woman to be a scout, a couple of well-established street fighters, and one of the men who had hazed Roman on his first day in prison, all of whom had escaped with them on the bus. It was the last member of their crew that surprised her, the getaway driver from the riot, who Neo was certain would've been long gone by now; imagine her shock when he not only stuck around, but actually volunteered for the job.

"And last but not least, we have Corvo Corsair." said Roman, looking down at his scroll as he stepped in front of the black-haired thief. "Heard you used to run with a pretty mean bandit tribe back in Mistral before you ditched them and came here. In fact, Neo here tells me you'd rather be in Vacuo right about now. So why come back, why are you here?"

"Way I see it, you're the reason I'm not in a cell right now, figure I owe you one. Once this gig's over, I'm gone."

Roman placed his hand on the young man's shoulder. "Buddy, if you help me nail this guy, I'll personally arrange a one-way trip to Oasis for you. Now, let's get down to business."

The crew gathered around a table in the middle of the room that had a map of the target area laid out on top of it.

"Our mark will be in this alleyway," said Roman, gesturing to the red X marked on the map, "selling an item that **I** stole to a wealthy client who has **my** money. Lady, you're my scout, get onto this rooftop and keep an eye out."

"Sure thing, Boss." replied the young woman of the crew.

"Baldy, Beardy, and Burly," said Roman, getting the attention of the three men, "there are three ways into the alley here, here, and here; I need one of you at each entrance to make sure no one comes in and no one leaves."

The three men grimaced at the nicknames their employer had given them, but grunted in acknowledgement.

"Bandit, you're our getaway driver, same as before. I've got a van in the back for you to use."

"What a' you gonna do, Boss?" asked the man who so foolishly once thought he held power over Roman in prison.

"I thought that was obvious; Neo and I are going to walk into the alley, kill the rat that sold us out, and get back what's wrongfully mine."

* * *

The crew made their way to the harbor district in their unmarked van. They dropped their scout off on the other side of the block, allowing her to climb up to the rooftops unnoticed. Two of the men were dropped off at the next corner, they headed in opposite directions to cover their respective exits to the alley. Roman had provided a weapon for each crew member, just in case things didn't go as smoothly as expected; a submachine gun for each of the alley guards, a suppressed semi-automatic rifle for the scout, and a machine pistol for the driver. The van drove around to the final entrance and dropped off Roman, Neo, and the last man.

"Pick us up in ten, but keep an eye out." said Roman.

"Got it." replied Corvo, as he pulled away.

Roman and Neo walked through the alley towards the turn at the center. A hobo lay asleep on the ground; the criminal duo walked past the downtrodden man, not particularly concerned with his presence.

" _Not like he can call the cops_ ;" thought Roman, " _besides, he wouldn't see me do anything I haven't already been charged with_."

The partners could hear voices up ahead, just around the corner; one that sounded like your typical resident of Vale's seedy underbelly, and one that sounded like a posh aristocrat you would meet in the upper-class heights of Mistral.

"I have been after this treasure for years," said the rich man, "your reward for providing it is well worth the cost to me."

"Why thank ya, Sir. Always a pleasure doin' business."

Roman clapped his hands as he rounded the corner. Everyone turned to the source of the sudden interruption; they were met with the sight of Vale's Most Wanted and the rather short woman next to him.

"That would be all well and good," said Roman, winding down his clap, "but that's **my** business you're doing there."

"What is the meaning of this!?" asked the Mistrali, prompting the two private security guards flanking him to reach for their weapons.

Before they could draw, a bullet landed near their feet and caused them to hesitate.

"Now, now, I've got no problem with any of you," said Roman, raising his cane, "so why don't you just stand there quietly while I carry out my business."

None of the men moved.

"Or, if you prefer, my associate with the rifle up there can put the next shot in a much more…persuasive place."

The bodyguards returned to a neutral stance, but still kept their eyes carefully trained on Roman.

"Better. Now, on to business." said Roman, turning to the man he was here to see.

The man stood a few inches shorter than Roman. His head and lower face were covered in unkempt blonde hair. His blue eyes watched Roman cautiously, and he grit his teeth in an apprehensive scowl, revealing several implants made of gold. He wore a thick coat over a beige shirt, baggy jeans, a pair of workman's boots, and several large gold rings on his fingers.

"So, **you're** Pyrite, eh? Lotta people in this town have got a bone to pick with you; luckily, I'm more than happy to take care of everybody's mutual problems, I'm generous like that."

"Hey, c'mon now, Torchwick, we ain't gotta do this. Surely we can come to some kinda understanding." pleaded the man.

" **My** understanding is that you took something of mine **and** got me thrown in prison for my trouble. I'm thinking you owe me, time to pay up…with interest."

Pyrite made a break for the open alley behind him, only to notice the man waiting at the end with a gun. He turned back and rushed the short woman by Torchwick's side, thinking she would be an easy target that could be knocked out quickly; he was wrong. The woman opened her parasol and shoved it in Pyrite's face, before closing it and jabbing him in the gut with the tip, causing him to double over. Torchwick followed up with an upwards swing to the chin with the handle of his cane, then a jab to the shin to put Pyrite off balance, and a wide rotating backswing to the arm to finally put him on the ground.

"Well, this is a disappointment." said Roman, as Pyrite shuffled back against the wall. "I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you're not much of a fighter, are you?"

Pyrite merely looked between his two assailants with desperation on his face.

"That would explain so much." muttered Roman beneath his breath. "Welp, whatever your excuse, I can't just let you go around mooching off other criminals' work, so I'm gonna kill you now."

"No, wait, please!" begged Pyrite, holding his arms in front of his face.

"Oh, come on, at least face your **death** with dignity." chided Roman, as Neo drew the blade out of her parasol with a wicked smile. Roman coughed to get her attention. "Neo, if I may." he said, holding his hand out.

Neo's initial look of confusion quickly turned into a joyful smile, as she happily handed the stiletto over to her boss.

"Any last words?" asked Roman, as he stared down at the pitiful man.

Pyrite's terrified expression stared back before turning into a look of begrudging acceptance. "What's the point?"

"You make a compelling argument." said Roman, before he stabbed Pyrite through the chest.

Pyrite gasped and his body went rigid, as the blade ran through his heart. He let out a final grunt of pain as Roman removed the sword, before his body went limp and he bled out on the ground.

Neo walked up alongside Roman, taking the blade and wiping it down before sheathing it back in her parasol.

" **Well** , now that that's out of the way," said Roman, turning to the Mistrali client still standing by, "how about we get back to **your** business? See, I'm the guy who **actually** stole this wonderful little gem," he continued, removing the Gaia Emerald from the coat pocket of Pyrite's fallen body, "before this guy here came along and took credit for my work."

The aristocrat swallowed all of the pooled saliva he hadn't even realized he was holding in his mouth. "I-I see, so you wish to s-sell me the emerald yourself?"

"Precisely! And, for the less-than-satisfactory customer experience, I'm willing to give you a discount. It's the **least** I can do for threatening your life and making you watch my…eliminating the competition. Whaddaya say?"

"Well, um, t-thank you for the…generous offer."

"Excellent! Neo, be a dear and take our client's briefcase."

Neo nodded and approached the wealthy man. His bodyguards regarded her with caution, as she reached out her hands. The client hesitated at first, but placed the briefcase into the short woman's hands. Neo nodded in thanks and brought the case to her boss.

Roman took the case and counted up the contents; satisfied with the amount, he took a few stacks of Lien out and handed them to Neo along with the Gaia Emerald. Neo walked back over to the client and handed the items to him.

"Pleasure doing business with you." said Roman, tucking away the briefcase and walking out of the alley.

Neo followed her boss to the street corner, where Corvo was already waiting for their pickup. They gathered up the other members of their crew and drove away from the docks.

"Even though this job was pretty easy, I'd say you all did pretty good." said Roman, turning to Corvo. "Kid, you've earned yourself that trip to Oasis; the rest of you, I may request your services again in an upcoming heist, keep your ears open."

The criminals sounded off their acknowledgements, as the van continued to its destination.

* * *

After Roman Torchwick had left the alleyway, the Mistrali aristocrat and his bodyguards had quickly followed suit. The only ones left in the alley were a sleeping homeless man and the bloodied corpse of Pyrite. The homeless man stirred from his slumber, rubbing his thick beard and pulling at his tattered clothes. He walked over to the nearby crime scene and stood over the dead criminal.

"Oh my, this isn't good;" he said, in a voice younger and an accent more high-class than his appearance suggested, "seems that Torchwick fellow is a spot more trouble than I thought he'd be."

Shadows swirled around the man's body, rising up and then dispersing to reveal a completely different individual.

The man was clean-shaven, with amber eyes and well-kept blonde hair. He wore a dark suit with a bright red cravat and a gold signet ring.

"How long has it been since **someone else** cost **me** money. I do believe I've found myself an interesting rival." proclaimed the man, one of his amber eyes turning blue as he blinked.

* * *

 **A/N: Well, that's unexpected, the real Pyrite is revealed! It's a twist even I didn't see coming until recently!**

 **I thought it would be interesting if Roman and Neo could have a more ongoing rivalry with Pyrite; but that will have to be explored in a sequel, since it kinda goes beyond the scope of this story. Look forward to that in the future.**

 **My next story is going to be an alternate take of sorts on Volume 4, something I've had in the works for about as long as this story. The general outline is already done, so next up is moving on to specifics then the actual writing.**

 **Finally, Volume 5; Volume 5 gave us quite a bit of insight into our favorite Beacon Headmaster, so I'll definitely be cooking up something for _Marvelous Misadventures_. Needless to say it won't be exactly like the way Oz is portrayed in the series proper, since I already have quite a bit of my own groundwork already laid here (the explanation for Raven and Qrow's animorphism comes to mind). Look forward to that as well. **

**Hope you enjoyed the read, and have a good day.**


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